


A Well Kept Secret

by btvscharmedgirl



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, NCIS
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-11 12:55:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7052650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/btvscharmedgirl/pseuds/btvscharmedgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post season 7 of Buffy, and Starts during Truth and Consequences of NCIS. Ziva's been keeping a secret from her co-workers for years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> Partial spoiler for the end of NCIS Truth and Consequences. I don't know how long this is going to be, and it might not follow NCIS canon. Let me know what you think, and I do take suggestions for future chapters, and story lines.

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, or NCIS

A/N: Partial spoiler for the end of NCIS Truth and Consequences. I don't know how long this is going to be, and it might not follow NCIS canon. Let me know what you think, and I do take suggestions for future chapters, and story lines.

AN: 6/5/2016: Thanks to my beta Sorentia for editing and fixing all my mistakes.

Chapter 1: The Rescue

The sound of firing guns was the first thing Faith, Willow, and Buffy heard when they materialized in the middle of an empty dark hallway. All three of the women backed up to the dirty stone wall out of reflex and glancing back and forth to see where the shots were coming from.

Faith looked at Willow with wide eyes, her hushed voice reflecting the urgency of their predicament and asked, "Red, where the fuck did you transport us to?"

"Somalia," Willow whispered.

"And what hell are we doing here?" she whisper-yelled.

"One of our slayers was captured by a terrorist cell," Willow replied.

Faith growled at the redhead, "Red, we can't fight people with guns. What the hell were you thinking, bringing us here without telling us what were in for?"

"What did you want me to do? Waste more time by telling you that we're going into a dangerous situation. You do that every night, Faith," Willow spat back.

"Yeah, but they don't involve guns," Faith said; her voice getting a little loud.

"Well, what in the name of the Goddess do you want me to do? We have a job to do, and I didn't even know what we were getting into when I transported us here. All I knew was someone was in trouble," Willow angrily whispered.

"Yeah, and you didn't even tell us who," Faith stated.

"Because I'm not sure, who it is," Willow said a bit apologetically, "All the man said was that a slayer was captured, where she is, and by who.

"And you believed him? What if this is a fuckin' trap, Red?" Faith yelled, her voice rising with her frustration.

Buffy watched quietly as the scene played out before her. She finally decided to stop it before it got out of hand. "Alright, you two, we have a job to do, even if there are guns involved. If it's a trap then we'll deal."

"Yeah, but she coulda' told us all this before we got here," Faith argued.

"I told you already. I didn't know," Willow said.

"God, you two fight like an old married couple," Buffy groaned, rolling her eyes at them.

"We are married Buffy," Willow reminded her best friend.

"Yeah, still can't believe that," Buffy mumbled.

"Why, because I bagged the hot redheaded witch," Faith said with a grin.

"No more like the fact that Willow managed to get you to the alter, and that I wasn't there. You two just came back home from Argentina, and were like; Hey guys the mission was a success, and oh yeah were married." Buffy groused.

It was Willow's turn to roll her eyes. There hadn't been a day that went by were Buffy wasn't griping about not being at the wedding. "Guys, we have to get going," she said quietly.

"Fine, but we're gonna to discuss the when we get home," Faith said.

"Fine. Come on let's go this way," Willow said. The three of them walked down the hall until they came to a T intersection. Buffy peeked around the corner to the left, and then to the right to see if the coast was clear.

"There's no one there," she said to the other two women. Willow peeked to see which way to go next. At the end of the hallway off to the left was a door, while off to the right it led to another hallway. The sound of gunfire was steadily getting louder.

"This way," Willow said pointing to the door.

"Willow, how do you know where to go?" Buffy asked.

"Because I can feel her," Willow replied.

"Oh, right," Buffy said. She was always forgetting that. Truthfully, she tried really hard to forget that little fact. It was a little creepy knowing her best friend could feel her.

The women were an arm's length away from the door when they heard several shots being fired directly behind them. Willow whipped around and quickly placed a force field up in front of them. The bullets hit the shield and disintegrated. Willow whispered a few words in Latin and the man who shot at them dropped to the floor.

Buffy looked in askance at the man who had fired on them, "What did you do to him?"

"I knocked him out," Willow explained, as she dropped the shield.

"That thing is handy," Buffy commented, referring to the shield.

"Not handy enough," rasped Faith. Buffy and Willow looked to their left, to find Faith leaning against the wall. Blood was oozing from her left shoulder.

"Faith," Willow yelled starting to panic. Visions of Tara in her arms with a gunshot wound to her chest flashed in her mind. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Faith grunted. "Bullet passed through and through. I'll be fine. Hurts like a bitch, though."

"How did it get through the shield?" Willow asked aloud as she pulled a cloth out of her pants pocket, and covered the wounds.

"It hit me just as you put your force field up. That thing was pretty wicked." Faith said with a grin.

"I'm sending you back home. They can patch you up there," Willow told her wife.

"No. You need to save your energy for when we're both home," Faith mentioned casually.

"Why's that?" Willow wondered aloud, as she wrapped Faith's shoulder as best as she could.

Faith responded by wiggling her eyebrows.

"Yep, she fine," Buffy said with a chuckle.

"Come on. We got a job to do," Faith said, as she moved to open the door.

"Faith," Willow started; stopping her wife just before she opened the door. "Please let me send you home."

"No. You brought me here to do a job, and I ain't leaving 'til it's done," Faith more or less demanded then opened the door.

"Stubborn woman," Willow grumbled as they entered the room. Four people were inside. One man was tied up on the ground. One was standing. Another man was bound to a chair facing them with a woman similarly bound to a chair facing toward the window.

Barely a second after they entered the room, a bullet flew through the window hitting the man who was standing. He dropped to the ground, dead before he hit the concrete. All three women stood in the doorway in shock. Buffy was the first to recover. Closing the door behind them she then ran forward to the man on the ground.

"Are you alright?" She asked him, helping to remove his bindings.

The man looked at his rescuer and asked, "Yeah I'm fine. Who are you people?"

"Friends. We're here to rescue you… I think… I'm Buffy," She said, as she helped him up.

"Tim. Why are you here to rescue us?" McGee asked.

"Not you. Her," Faith said; picking the knife up, she walked over to the woman in the chair. "Ziva?" she asked, surprise evident in her voice her.

"Faith? What are you doing here?" Ziva asked as Faith cut the zip ties that held the Israeli's arms together. She then handed the knife to McGee, so he could cut Tony's.

"Rescuing you," Willow answered for Faith, shaking off her own shock from finding not one but three captives.

"Willow?" Ziva asked incredulously.

"Yep. Bet you're glad to see us," Willow chirped, forcing a smile that quickly fell as the door burst open behind them.

"Look out," Tony yelled, as a man with a gun came in. He dropped to the ground suddenly, as two bullets flew through the window.

"Damn it. That's the guy I knocked out," Willow said.

McGee cut the last tie holding Tony into the chair. Once Tony was free, McGee turned around and picked up their captors fallen gun. Both men then moved towards Ziva.

"Come on," Tony said, as they helped Ziva out of her chair. "Alright, here we go," The three of them rushed out of the room, with Buffy, Willow, and Faith following quickly behind them. They went straight, to the end of the hallway. Their movement was halted when a man came around the corner. A few seconds later, the man was shot by an unknown shooter. He dropped to the ground with a soft thud. They continued their journey, moving around the corner with caution. At the end of the next hallway stood a man in a ghillie suit, holding a camouflaged sniper rifle.

"Let's go home," He ordered the others before noticing the Slayers and the Witch.

"Who's he?" Buffy questioned.

"Our boss, Gibbs" Tony informed her.

"Who are they," Gibbs demanded to know.

"My friends," Ziva said weakly meeting Gibbs eyes for a moment.

"Alright, come on. All of you. You can explain who they are when we're safe" Gibbs said. The group started to follow him out but stopped when they heard the sound of a body dropping to the ground. They turned to see Faith slumped on the ground, with Willow frantically calling her name.


	2. Questions Raised

Chapter 2: Questions Raised

"Faith, come on baby. Now is not the time for a nap. Wake up," Willow said through tears, as she lightly slapped her wife's cheek.

"What's wrong with her?" Gibbs asked, as he walked over to the women.

"She was shot," Buffy replied.

"How bad is her injury?" asked Ziva.

"Not as bad as it could be. Worse than we thought, though, but you know Faith. She won't let a little bullet keep her down," Buffy said, as she bent over Faith. "Move Willow, so I can pick her up," she told her best friend gently.

"No, go over and help Ziva. Tony can get…" Gibbs started to say but was stunned speechless when the petite blond lifted her taller counterpart with ease. Looking at his team he noticed the stunned looks on Tim and Tony's faces and the lack of surprise on Ziva's. He couldn't tell if it was because she was exhausted, or if she really wasn't surprised by it. He made a mental note to talk to the woman later, before turning back to the three strangers.

"Come on let's go, before another one of us is shot," Gibbs commanded the group.

They walked out of the building into the hot sun. Having only expected it to be him and his team; Gibbs only had one military vehicle waiting outside. He opened the side door and instructed Tony, Ziva, and Tim to get in the back seat. He moved the back of the vehicle and lifted the flap to the side.

"You three back here with me," He said to Buffy, and Willow. He was once again shocked to see the blonde easily climb into the high vehicle, though he didn't let it show. It was a tight fit but they managed it.

"First aid kit," Gibbs yelled to the driver.

"Beside you sir," he yelled back.

Gibbs opened the built in box and fished out the large first aid kit. He grabbed a pair of scissors, peroxide, bandages, and tape out of the kit. He removed the hastily placed bindings and then cut the left sleeve off of her black t-shirt. He checked to see if the bullet passed through or if it was still in her.

"It went through her," Gibbs stated.

"Yeah we know. She told us," Willow told him before turning to Buffy. "Buffy take my hand, and place your other one on Faith."

Buffy clasped Willow's left hand and placed her right on Faith's leg. Closing her eyes Willow started meditating. She pulled the energy from Buffy and from around them and sent it to her wife.

Gibbs cleaned and dressed the wounds, then sat back and watch the three newcomers. "She's lost a lot of blood, but she should be fine if we get her to a hospital."

"No hospitals," Willow said, not opening her eyes. "She doesn't like them."

"Yeah, she'll freak if she wakes up in one, and that's the last thing we need. She'll be fine. Hell, she's been through worse than this," Buffy said.

"Damn straight," croaked Faith.

Relief flooded into Willow like a warm wave. "Faith, baby. How are you feeling?"

Faith gave Willow a big grin, showing off her dimples. "Like I can't wait to get you home to bed."

A snort came from Buffy and Tony both. "Yeah she's fine," Buffy chuckled.

"Where is home?" Gibbs questioned.

"Mayville, New York," Willow said with a tired smile for her wife.

"Why'd you leave Scotland?" Ziva asked weakly.

Buffy shrugged her shoulders, answering nonchalantly, "We got bored."

"What are you doing in Somalia?" Gibbs inquired.

"We came to rescue Ziva," Willow told him.

"How did you know Ziva was there?" Gibbs wanted to know, his eyes shrewdly watching the three strangers among them.

"What is this; an interrogation?" Buffy snapped at Gibbs, her own eyes narrowing.

"We got a tip," Willow interrupted quickly with a pointed look at Buffy, hoping to avoid any conflict between the two groups.

"From who?" Ziva asked.

Willow turned to face Ziva. She shifted nervously for a moment before hesitantly answering her question, "From your Father."

With speed faster than her weak body should be able to move, Ziva turned to face Willow. "He knew where I was?" Ziva asked.

It was barely there, but Willow could hear the hurt in her voice. She nodded her head silently and place her hand on Ziva's shoulder. She gave squeezed her shoulder, and then turned back to Faith. Her wife was looking up at her with a ferocious look. That look frightened Willow. There were only a few times she had ever seen it on her wife's face, and each time Faith went off and did something incredibly dangerous and stupid.

The last time Willow had seen that look, Faith disappeared for six months without a word. She had been leading a mission in Australia. It was a simple nest clean up, gone terribly wrong. Faith went in with three still-in-training-slayers. It was their first actual mission outside of regular patrols.

The nest of vampires turned out to be lackies for a trio of powerful demons. Faith and the s.i.t.s were ill prepared to fight off three magic wielding demons as well as the vampires. Faith was able to slay one of the demons, while the S.I.T.S (still in training slayers), were busy with the vampires. Two of the girls were killed while fighting, and instead of risking the third, Faith retreated.

The look on Faith's face as she recounted what happened, was the same look she was giving Willow. That night, Faith went back alone with explosives. She blew up the vampires, and in the confusion, she managed to take out the two remain demons. She was gone the next day and didn't turn up until six months later.

Willow didn't want her wife to go off and do something stupid. She loved her very much, as much as she loved Tara if not more, and she didn't know if she could survive losing her. Tara's death nearly destroyed her, and the world by default. She knew that she would never lose control over her magic like that again, but getting through the pain of losing her would be a different story.

Willow placed her hand over Faith's, attempting to sooth her. They sat in silence for a while. Each caught up in their own thoughts. Willow resumed her healing meditation, while simultaneously sending Faith all her love. Tony, Ziva, and Tim rested in the back seat. All three were tired and were eager to return home.

During the trip, Gibbs discreetly watch Willow, Faith, and Buffy. His brief encounter with the three of them stirred up many questions in the agent's mind. Who were they? Why wasn't Faith dead after sustaining an injury like that, and loosing so much blood? How did Buffy lift someone who was taller, and heaver then herself? How did they know Ziva? Why hadn't Ziva mentioned them before? Why did Director David tell them where Ziva was, instead of calling NCIS, or sending one of his own teams to get her?

Gibbs thoughts were interrupted when Willow asked, "Can your driver drop us off in the next town?"

"No, you three are coming back to Washington with us," Gibbs replied with a hard look.

"Why?" Buffy demanded, having had enough.

"You three have some explaining to do, and we need to debrief you before we can allow you to return home," Gibbs said.

"But you were right. We need to get Faith to a hospital," Buffy argued, looking at the sleeping woman.

"No, fuckin hospitals, B," Faith said, clearly not sleeping like her fellow slayer thought.

"Not helping Faith," Buffy said annoyed.

"We have a doctor waiting for us on the plane. She can check her out when we get there, and you are going," Gibbs demanded.

"So you're going to kidnap us, then," Buffy said.

"No. We are merely escorting three American citizens, who assisted Special Agents McGee, and DiNozzo in the rescue of Mossad Officer Ziva David back home again," Gibbs said formally.

"Agents, as in the government?" Buffy asked, the wariness evident in her voice.

"Yes," Gibbs stated simply.

"What branch?" Willow asked.

"NCIS," McGee answered, earning him a slap on the back of his head from Tony.

"Way to go McSmartie pants," Tony said.

"Sorry, boss," McGee apologized instinctively.

"It's fine McGee. I was going to tell them anyway," Gibbs told his junior agent

"Ok, I'm confused. What is NCIS, and why did he slap Tim for telling us where you work?" Buffy asked, pointing to Tony

"Because for all we know you are a part of that terrorist cell and were only pretending to rescue us, to gain our trust," Tony said.

"They are not lying, Tony. They are my friends," Ziva said.

"You've never mention them before, and you haven't told us how you know them," Tony said.

"We're here Agent Gibbs," interrupted the driver.

"Okay. Come on. We can finish this discussion on the plane," Gibbs told the rest of them.

"Guess we don't have a choice," Buffy said with a grumble.

"No you don't," Gibbs replied flatly.

McGee and Tony Helped Ziva out of the truck and into the plane, while

Buffy attempted to carry Faith.

"I can walk, B. My legs are just fine," Faith told Buffy.

"Go right ahead then," Buffy told the stubborn slayer.

Faith hopped out of the back, followed closely by Willow, and Buffy. They moved to Faith's sides as they walked to the plane. Gibbs watched Faith with amazement. With the amount of blood she lost, she shouldn't be able to stand right now, and yet she was currently walking on her own.

Tony was waiting for Gibbs, just inside the plane door, "What's up DiNozzo," he asked.

"Funny, that's exactly what I'm wondering. Why do you want them to come with us so badly?" Tony asked.

"Because they're hiding something that involves Ziva, and I want to know what it is," Gibbs replied quietly.

"Alright, boss. Good enough for me," Tony said.


	3. Head Talks

Chapter 3: Head Talk

The doctor was already attending to Faith's wounded shoulder when Tony and Gibbs joined them in the passenger's cabin. The men took seats at the front of the cabin, facing the rest of the group. Silence overtook them as they waited patiently for the doctor to patch Faith up, take a look at Ziva, and then tell the captain that the two of them were allowed to fly.

Nearly an hour had passed by the time the doctor was finished looking the women over. Faith was already resting on a long seat with Willow when Ziva returned to her seat in between Buffy and Tim, and across from the couple.

The ever fast acting Gibbs had already moved to the little hall outside the cockpit, to talk to the doctor.

"How is Ziva?" he asked the doctor.

"She's dehydrated and malnourished. She'll be weak for a while, but she'll be fine in a couple of weeks," she replied.

"Good," Gibbs said. "What about Faith?"

"I'm not sure I should be discussing Faith's condition with you," she said hesitantly.

"You told me how Ziva was," Gibbs argued.

"Yes, but she's different. You were sent to rescue her, and you're close with Ziva," The doctor argued back.

"She helped us rescue Ziva. I just want to know that she'll be ok," Gibbs cunningly played the doctor. "Please Sarah, how is Faith?"

Sarah knew full well that Gibbs was playing her, and that he wasn't going to stop badgering her until he got the information he wanted. Reluctantly she told him what he wanted to know, "She's lost a lot of blood, and the bullet did a lot of damage. Normally I would have said that she needs surgery, but in this case, she won't need it. I've never seen wound heal that fast. I was really surprised when she told me she had been shot just a couple of hours ago because the wound looks like it's a least a day old. The bleeding has stopped and new tissue is already forming. It's really amazing."

"Is there a medical reason why a wound would heal that fast?" Gibbs asked.

"None that I've come across," Sarah replied. "Why are you so interested in the girl's wound?

"She helped save Ziva. I just want to make sure she alright," Gibbs answered, sticking to his story with a straight face.

"You play dirty Agent Gibbs. I know you have other reasons for wanting to know. If you find out whatever it is you're seeking, please let me know. That girl's got my interest peeked as well," Sarah said with a smirk. "If you'll excuse me; I have to let the pilot know the girls are safe to fly.

"Sure," Gibbs said, as he moved to the side to let the doctor pass. He reclaimed his seat next to Tony and watched the three newcomers and Ziva.

The plane took off a half an hour later. Nobody had moved or said anything since they had gotten situated. Normally Gibbs embraced the silence, but now it was irritating him. He had questions, and he wanted the answers to them, but he knew he had to be patient. So he sat watching the group. He watched as Faith laid her head down in Willow's lap when the seatbelt light went off, and Willow lovingly started stroking her wife's hair.

He watched as Buffy wrapped her left arm around Ziva's shoulders. Then a few minutes later, Ziva relaxed and snuggled into Buffy's side. He watched as one by one they fell asleep until only he was left awake. An hour went by, then another, and another.

Gibbs was sure he was not going to make it off this plane with his head fully intact unless he got the answers he wanted. He wanted the women to wake up, but he knew that two of them needed the rest so he continued to wait quietly.

What he didn't realize was that Ziva was already awake, and had been for a least thirty minutes. She wasn't ready to talk to Gibbs, so she pretended that she was still sleeping. Ziva had a few questions of her own but wasn't sure how to get them without tipping Gibbs off to her secrets. She finally decided to try and contact Willow in her head.

Hoping it would work she started to think Willow's name. 'Willow. Willow. Can you hear me? Please let this work. Willow.' Not getting a response she yelled, WILLOW, WAKE UP.'

'Alright, geez I'm awake. Talk about a wake-up call,' Willow thought back at Ziva.

'You're telling me. That was some serious wave patterns you're sending out, Z.' Faith thought.

'I am sorry. I did not realize I would connect with you as well,' Ziva apologized.

'Normally you can't, but since she's near me, the connection we share allowed your waves to be passed to Faith. Oh, that means you probably woke Buffy up to,' Willow thought.

'Yeah I'm awake too,' thought Buffy.

'Why can, B, hear too?' Faith asked.

'Because we share a connection too, Faith,' Willow answered.

'Better not be the same connection we have, or I'm divorcing your ass,' Faith replied playfully.

'Divorce? When did you two get married?' Ziva asked.

'Five months ago,' Willow answered.

'Oh,' Ziva said, obviously disappointed.

'Don't worry you didn't miss a thing. I wasn't there either. They just came home two months ago and were like: hi guys, the mission went great, and oh yeah we got married. That was it. They didn't say how they did it, or why. Just that they did it.' Buffy rambled.

'God B, you're givin' me a migraine. Give it a rest, already. We'll tell ya when ya stop nagging us about.' Faith complained.

'Fine I'll stop for now, but only because it sounded like Ziva needed to talk. By the way, why are we talking in Willow's head?' Buffy thought.

'Because I do not want to be overheard. Did you open your eyes?' Ziva asked.

"Nope. Figured you didn't want to alert Mr. Puppy with a Bone, over there, that we're awake. So I'm pretending to be asleep yet,' Buffy thought.

'Same here. We're both faking too,' Willow thought.

'Good. Thank you, and you are right. I do not want Gibbs to know we are awake. A least not yet." Ziva thought.

'So, what's the what, Z? Why'd you want Red awake so bad?' Faith asked.

'I wanted to know what Abba said,' Ziva thought.

'All he said was, that one of our slayers was captured and being held in Somalia, and he gave me the coordinates," Willow replied.

'Can't believe ya didn't tell me he was the informant,' Faith thought.

'Because I know how you feel about him Faith. I knew you would think it was a trap, and we didn't have time to argue about it. I checked to make sure he wasn't lying before we left,' Willow thought back.

'So you knew it was Ziva before we left and you didn't tell me?' Faith asked.

'Yes, I knew it was Ziva. I didn't tell you because I wanted your head in the game. Not on a hell bent mission. I didn't want you to risk yourself, and get hurt,' Willow replied.

'I did get hurt. I got fuckin shot in the shoulder. You should have told me it was my…'

'Hey. Now is not the time for you two to be arguing. You have guests in Will's head remember,' Buffy interrupted the argument before it got too far out of hand.

'Your right. We're sorry," Willow apologized.

'Yeah. We're gonna talk about this when we get home, Red,' Faith replied. 'Z, how the hell did you end up in fuckin Somalia?'

'I was sent on a mission to uncover a terrorist cell.' Ziva answered.

'Why didn't you fight back, Ziva? You're a slayer for god sake. You could have easily overpowered all of them,' Buffy asked.

'Saleem, the man that was in the room with us, injected me with something every day. It took my powers away. I was too weak to fight back,' Ziva answered.

Ziva heard Buffy and Willow think 'Shit,' followed closely by what felt like a physic punch. Her head exploded in pain for a brief moment, then subsided to a dull thumping. Grabbing her head she opened her eyes to find Willow and Buffy doing the same. Faith was pacing angrily back and forth, and all three of the men on their feet and, looking at them in shock and confusion.

Buffy was the first to recover from their shared physic punch. She got to her feet and went and grabbed Faith, halting her pacing. "Faith, you need to calm down," Buffy said to her out loud.

"Don't fuckin tell me to calm down, B. He did this to her. He set her up," Faith yelled, pointing a Ziva.

"You don't know that for sure," Buffy tried to reason with her.

"Yes, I do, and so do you. You know damn well that he's the only one left of the old Council besides Giles. He's the only one who has that recipe," Faith yelled back.

"And what are you going to do about it Faith? We're thousands of miles off the ground in a fucking plane. There is nothing you can do right now so calm down," Buffy yelled at her.

"Don't tell me to calm down, B. I have every right to be mad. The fuckin bastard is dead. I'm gonna fucking kill him," Faith yelled, even louder than before.

"You're not going to kill him, Faith. He's your…" started to say calmly, but was interrupted when she say Faith's fist coming toward her face.

Willow saw this movement and quickly placed a shimmering blue force field in between the two women, causing them both to be thrown backward a few feet.

Gibbs, Tony, and McGee watched in utter confusion as all of this is was happening. When the force field went up, all three of them physically jumped, but what came out of Faith's mouth was even more stunning.

Faith was looking straight at Buffy with tears in her eyes. "He sent her there, B. He gave them the one thing that takes her powers away. He took the only thing away that could protect her. He's dead Buffy. He can't hurt my sister and get away with it."


	4. Revelations

Since the fall of Sunnydale, Willow had watched as Faith slowly let her and the Scoobies into her heart, but she had never seen Faith cry in front anyone but herself. Faith always stayed strong, so the sight of the tears breaking free from Faith's eye in front of everyone on the plane caused a sharp pain in Willow's chest.

Willow quickly dropped the shield, walked over to Faith, and dropped to her knees. She wrapped her arms around her wife, and pulled her close. Faith pushed her away, stood up, and shrugged off her moment of weakness.

Buffy was still sitting on the floor in shock at Faith's show off emotion's and Willow's show of magic in front of strangers. She was pulled out of her stupor when Faith pushed Willow away, but it was the hurt look on her best friend's face that made the blonde jump into action.

Buffy jumped up off the floor and launched herself at the brunette. As Faith extended her hand toward her wife, Buffy punched her in the face, and then tackled her to the floor. Buffy applied pressure to Faith's wounded shoulder, keeping the younger woman pinned to the floor. Faith tried to fight off Buffy, but every time she moved, a sharp pain shot through her body.

Willow told Buffy to let Faith up, but Buffy ignored her. She looked down at the struggling woman, and said, "You don't push your wife away when she is trying to comfort you. I don't ever want to see that look on her face again."

Faith gave Buffy a death glare before fighting through the pain, and throwing the blonde off her. Buffy landed on her ass, a foot away from Faith. Buffy only had a second to process what happened, when Faith tackled her.

"You don't know a damn thing about our marriage, B. So stay the fuck out of it," Faith growled in Buffy's face.

Buffy shoved Faith off her, and then tackled her again. The two of them started fighting. Despite Faith's injuries, Buffy was only able to keep the upper hand over Faith for a few moments at a time.

Willow decided to let them fight it out, and that she would step in if it got too bad. She took a seat on the couch and then gave Ziva an annoyed look, before watching her wife and best friend fight.

The men on the plane stood watching the scene unfold in shock. Even Gibbs could not believe what he had seen Willow do. He was trying to come up with a reasonable conclusion for it, when the two women starting an all-out brawl right in front of them.

Tony and McGee snapped out of their stupors, and attempted to pull the woman apart. With the two slayers in full fight mode, they were unaware that the men were only trying to help. Their efforts were futile, because the women's slayer instincts kicked in and they tackled them instead.

Tony was shocked at the strength of the petite blonde, while the hurt brunette equally stunned McGee. Buffy and Faith realized whom they had tackled. They got off them, and then helped them up.

"You're bleeding Faith," Buffy replied.

Faith looked down at her injured shoulder, and then retorted, "Yeah no thanks to you, B."

"That's enough," Willow said, as she approached Faith to inspect the damage. "Can someone get the doctor please, she pulled her stitches."

"I'll get her," Tony said. He returned with Sarah a minute later, who immediately went to work again on Faith's shoulder. The rest of the passengers were sitting quietly, waiting for the doctor to finish.

After re-bandaging the wound, she said to Faith, "While the wound is healing quiet fast, you still need to be careful. So whatever you were doing, don't." As Sarah left the room she shot Gibbs a 'keep me posted' look.

Gibbs had been unable to find a reasonable conclusion for the magic Willow had used, and now he was itching to question her. As well as Ziva, who had never told them she had another sister. Not to mention the fact that Faith had openly threatened the life of someone, who if he was not mistaken was the Mossad Director.

There was also a part of this whole scene that Gibbs knew he had missed, but couldn't figure out how. He had been watching the women as they slept, when Faith suddenly shot off the couch complete irate. He was replaying the scene repeatedly in his head, trying to figure out what the hell happened. It was driving him crazy. He did not like not knowing what was going on. He finally decided to wait until they were back at NCIS head-quarters to question them. He figured it would probably be easier that way.

Tony and McGee had retreated to their chairs with wounded prides for letting the women get the upper hand over them. The investigators in them were itching to find the same answers that Gibbs wanted, but they sat quietly, waiting for their boss to make the first move.

Ziva knew that Gibbs was trying to figure out what had happened, and she knew soon or a later he was going to start pressing them for answers. She knew she could not let him in on the slayer secret yet. She was not sure how Willow was going to explain her using magic to them, but she knew she was going to have to explain Faith to them. She felt bad for keeping her sister from them, but she had to protect Faith, even if it meant lying to the people, she had come to care for.

The thing that was troubling Ziva the most though was her father. If Faith was right about him setting her up, then it was his entire fault for the things that happened to her during her captivity. She was not sure how she felt about that. Part of her was hoping that Faith was wrong, but the other part knew she was right. She had slowly been losing faith in her father over the years. Now she was just feeling like a fool for believing in him at all.

Willow was not worried about the NCIS agents figuring them out. That was something she could easily deal with if the truth came out. She was more worried about Faith and Buffy. The two of them were staring at each other from their seats across from each other. This was a situation she had been in many times before, but this time was different. In the past, when they had fought it was usually over something stupid, but they had never fought because of her. Even when Faith and she had gotten together, Buffy had just given the shovel speech to Faith, but had not fought the relationship.

Faith had been right; Buffy did not know how their relationship worked. Faith did not like showing her soft side to people, but if she did, Faith always pushed her away. It hurt Willow each time, but Faith always made it up to her. This was the first time Buffy was seeing this happen, and she understood where the blonde was coming from. She just hoped that Buffy could understand that this was something Willow had come to accept, and she hoped that this incident was not going to be the thing to break the relationship Buffy and Faith had built.

They sat silently for the remainder of the plane ride, and the car ride to the Navy Yard. Each person caught in their heads, each filled with thoughts about what had just happened.

The elevator doors slide open to reveal seven worn out passengers. The group stepped out of the elevator to a loud round of clapping from two dozen NCIS employees.

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After everybody had returned to their jobs, Gibbs turned to his team and the three new comers. "McGee, Ducky, Abby, please escort our guests to the conference room."

"Sure thing boss," McGee responded. The women were reluctant to leave Ziva, but they went with McGee after Ziva gave them the go-ahead.

"DiNozzo, go get us some pizza, and then bring them to the conference room," Gibbs ordered.

"Sure thing boss," Tony echoed McGee.

"Tony," Ziva said quietly. "My friends eat a lot."

"Double the order. Got it," Tony replied, and then left leaving Ziva alone with Gibbs.

"Sit down Ziva," Gibbs said gently pulling the chair from behind the desk that was once hers.

Ziva sat down on it as Gibbs retrieve his own chair. He pulled it over to her and sat on it. Gibbs placed his hand on Ziva's chin and lifted it up so that he could look into her eyes.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"I am fine," she replied.

Gibbs gave a soft smile. "I'm sure you are. You are a strong woman, Ziva, but you have been held in captivity for months. I'm here when you're ready to talk about it."

"Thank you," Ziva said.

"Why didn't you tell me you had another sister?" Gibbs asked.

Ziva looked into Gibbs eyes before responding, "I do not know."

"Ziva, you confided in me about your younger sister, and your brother. Why couldn't you tell me about Faith?"

"To protect her. My father did not want anyone to know about his connection to her. He threatened her life if I told anyone. Very few people know of this, and it is mostly Faith closest friends."

"How long have you known her?"

"Since 2004. When I returned home for a visit, she was in his office. She had come to confront him. My father did not want her to tell me who she was, but being the strong willed person that she is she told me anyway. He told me later that day to stay away from her, and to never speak of it again, but I defied him. When he realized I was not going to stay away he threatened her life if I told anyone about her."

Ziva did not like keeping part of the truth from Gibbs, but she could not tell him why Faith had really been there that day. She could not tell him she was a slayer. Maybe one day, but today was not that day. She has held this secret in for years for a reason.

"I wish you had trusted me enough to tell me this before. You've been keeping things from me Ziva, and I don't like it," Gibbs said.

"My personal life is not your business, Gibbs," Ziva snapped. "Do you know everything about Tony and McGee?"

"No, but they are not you. I care about you very much Ziva. We've been close since the day we met. I did not see them kill someone they love to protect someone they did not know. I love you as I would my daughter, if she were still here. Just like I do Abby."

"Thank you, Gibbs," Ziva replied. Ziva did not know what else to say to him. What else could she say? She was already feeling guilt for keeping the whole truth from him. Him telling her how much he cared for her only cemented that guilt further.

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"What the fuck is taking so long?" Faith asked.

"Faith sit down. You getting worked up isn't going to help Ziva," Buffy said.

"Shut up, B. If I wanna get worked up, I damn well will. It ain't any of your business," Faith said.

"What the hell is your problem?" Buffy asked.

"You're my problem. You keep butting into things that ain't your fuckin concern," Faith yelled.

"You're my friend, that gives me every right to butt in," Buffy spat back.

The NCIS crew sat watching the scene in amusement. McGee leaned over and whispered, "You should have seen them on the plane," into Abby's ear.

"You should see them at home," Willow said, after hearing what McGee said.

"Should we stop them?" Abby asked.

"No, I gave up trying to stop them years ago. I'll step in if it gets too bad, but I've learned to just let them fight it out. They fight out what ever problem they're having, and then they go back to being friends," Willow explained.

"Then why did you do that freaky thing that you did, to separate them?" McGee asked.

Willow looked at the Buffy and Faith who were still arguing. "Because normally were at home with people who are used to it. Not in front of strangers, or on a plane thousands of miles off the ground."

"Then why didn't you stop them when they started fight after that?" McGee asked.

"Because it was useless. They're going continue fighting until they work it out."

"How long can they go at it?" Abby asked.

"I've seen them fight every chance they got for two weeks," Willow said.

"What were they fighting about?" Ducky asked.

"Faith ate all of Buffy's yogurts," Willow said nonchalantly.

Abby, McGee, and Ducky looked at Willow as if she was crazy. Willow shrugged her shoulders and then extended her arm to Abby, "I'm Willow."

Abby took the extended hand, and then said, "I'm Abby, and he's Ducky."

Ducky extended his hand to Willow. As Willow took it, he said, "It's very nice to meet you."

"Ooh, a Giles," Willow said.

"What is a Giles?" McGee asked.

"Not a what, a who. Giles is our mentor, and is English, like Ducky," Willow replied.

"Oh, okay."

"It's nice to meet you, too," Willow said to Ducky, and then she pointed at Willow and Faith. "The blonde is my best friend Buffy, and the brunette is my wife, Faith."

"And apparently Ziva's sister," McGee said.

"What! Ziva has a sister. She never told me she had a sister. Why didn't she tell me she had a sister, McGee?" Abby said.

"I don't know Abby. She didn't tell me she had a sister either," McGee replied.

"Did you know Ducky?" Abby asked.

"No my dear, I did not," Ducky replied.

Abby looked sad for a minute before she happily asked, "So, where did you get married?"

"Argentina, almost five months ago."

"What is that freaky thing that you did?" McGee asked suddenly.

"What freaky thing?" Abby asked.

"Faith was going to punch Buffy when Willow raised her hand and a shield thingy popped up in between them that knocked them on their asses," McGee said.

"Ooh, sounds like magic. Was it magic?" Abby said excitedly.

Willow giggled at Abby's antics. The black haired woman reminded of herself. "No it was just an illusion," Willow answered.

"I don't believe you," Abby said, giving Willow a resolve face that so clearly resembled her own look. Willow took a moment to process the look. She thought to herself how everybody else must of felt what she was when she gave them that look.

Unable to fight the look Abby was giving her she said, "Fine, it was magic."

Buffy heard what Willow had said during a rare break in her argument with Faith, and looked over at her. "Willow, what the hell? You don't even know her. We have rules Willow," Buffy chastened.

"Okay, what the fuck is your problem. You never yell at her for anything, and you and I are going to have a serious problem if ya ever yell at her again," Faith yelled.

"Is that true? Buffy never yells at you?" Abby asked.

"Yeah, she hasn't yelled at me in years, but Buffy is right. We do have rule to follow and I just broke one. I'm not allowed to tell anyone new unless everybody agrees to it," Willow replied.

"Why my dear?" Ducky asked.

"To protect me. We had an unfortunate incident a few years ago. I was kidnapped by an anti-witch group because I told one of their members. That's when the rule was put into place."

"Yeah, it keeps you safe, and you just broke it," Buffy said.

"Shut up, B."

"No. Don't you give a damn about you wife at all?" Buffy yelled, which resulted in the two of them started arguing again

"So you're a witch?" Abby asked.

"Yeah," Willow replied.

"I don't believe in magic, and I'm surprised that you believe her. It goes against all logic," McGee said.

"McGee, hush," Abby said, and then looked back to Willow. "Can you show something?"

Buffy whipped her head to the side when she heard the question. "Don't even think about it, Willow. It's bad enough you used your powers on the plane."

"B, will you leave my wife alone," Faith said.

"No I will not, and she was my friend before she was your wife," Buffy argued.

"Ya know what. I bet your still peeved that you weren't at our wedding, and that we won't give you the details. Either that or your just mad because you want her for yourself, but can't have her," Faith said.

Buffy suddenly launched herself at Faith tackling her to the ground. Buffy was just about ready to punch Faith, when a voice boomed throw the room.

"That's enough," Gibbs yelled. He was standing in the doorway, with Ziva in front of him. "I have never seen two adults fighting that much over something stupid in my life. You are in my territory now so save the fighting for home."

The two of them moved into the room, and took seats. Tony strolled into the room carrying five pizzas and a bag full of sodas. "It's alright I've got it," he grunted.

Buffy and Faith silently agreed to stale there fight until they returned home. The group ate the pizza in silence.

Abby's head was swimming with ideas on how to trick Willow to do some magic. Gibbs was figuring out a plan to get the answers he wants. McGee was eyeing Willow, still not convince what he had seen on the plane was magic, while Tony was watching Buffy. Ducky was wondering how long it was going to take Gibbs to drag the whole truth out of the women.

Buffy noticed the look Ducky was giving them. It was like he knew who and what there are. She decided to let it go for now, but she would corner the man later.

Once all the food had been eaten Faith stood up, stretched, and said, "The grub was good, but it been a long day."

"Faith's right. We have to get home before they send out the troops and that would be of the bad," Buffy said.

"Ziva, do you want to stay with us for a while?" Willow asked.

"You cannot go," Gibbs said.

"Buffy's right, if we don't get home soon, our boss is going to freak. You really don't want that," Willow said.

"I can't allow you to leave until you are debriefed, and until I get the answers I want," Gibbs said.

"Well then we have a problem," Buffy said.


	5. Fighting

An hour had passed since Gibbs had dropped the formal act, and locked the girls in an interrogation room. When Gibbs gave the order, Tony had asked if he should put them together or separate. Gibbs responds by telling him he wanted to see how they reacted together when they knew he meant business.

Gibbs knew that he did not have a real reason to hold them, so he planned to tell anyone who asked that they were being held for debriefing. If that wasn't a strong enough reason, then he planned to tell them that Faith had openly threatened the life of the Mossad Director. Nobody could argue with that, and if he was forced to release the women, he could at the very least hold Faith on that charge. He already had his team looking into their backgrounds, so he just needed to bide enough time for them to finish their research. Then he would get the answers that he was seeking.

Ziva was furious with Gibbs. She could not believe that he had locked her friends and sister in interrogation, just an hour after he said he loved her like his daughter. She was pacing back and forth in front of the viewing room, as she was not allowed inside the room. She had no idea what to do. She did not have her cell phone, or PDA, and she could not remember Giles number. Then it hit like a ton of bricks; she could call the school. The number should be listed.

Ziva walked down the hall and into the bullpen. She slumped into McGee's desk chair and fired up his computer. She did a quick search for the school's number, and found it easily. She picked up the phone, dialed the number, and waited for somebody to answer.

"Hello, you've reached The United Academy for Gifted Girls. How may I direct your call?" A voice said from the other end of the line.

"Yes. Can you connect me to Mr. Giles, Please?" Ziva asked.

"I'm sorry; Mr. Giles is no longer with the school. He retired a few months ago, and returned home to England," replied the voice.

"Well, who is in charge, now? Ziva asked.

"That would be Ms. Buffy, but she's away at the moment. My I take a message?" the voice replied again.

"No. Buffy, Willow, and Faith are being held in Washington. It is important that I speak with somebody who can help me get them out," Ziva said.

"Shit. Hold on one second and I'll get Mr. Xander," the voice said. Ziva heard an alarm sounding in the background, and then the woman from the phone say 'Mr. Xander. Emergency call on line one.' The woman returned to the line. "Mr. Xander should be with you in a moment, please hold."

Ziva heard a click, followed quickly by another click. "You got Xander. Who is this?"

"Xander, it is Ziva."

"Ziva, it good to hear from you. Faith isn't here though, and the code red alarm was just sounded, so I have to go. I'll let Faith know you called," Xander said.

"Xander, wait. I know Faith is not there. She, Buffy, and Willow are in Washington with me. There being held for questioning," Ziva said.

"Is that why the alarms are going off?" Xander asked.

"Yes, I believe it is," Ziva replied.

"Okay, Ziva hold on a second," Xander said.

A minute later he returned to the line and said, "What happened? Who is holding them and why?"

"NCIS, and because Gibbs is a bull-headed old fool. That is why," Ziva retorted.

"Pig-headed. I think you mean pig-headed. The government? That's just great. Buffy hates the government when they aren't on her side. Why are they being held? Ziva you need to explain what happened," Xander said.

"I was being held captive in Somalia, and Willow, Buffy, and Faith came to rescue me. Gibbs, McGee, and Tony were also there to rescue me as well. Faith was shot, and she was bleeding heavily, but Gibbs would not allow them to leave the magical way. He insisted that they return to the states with us on the plane. To make a very long story short. Buffy lifted Faith and carried her to the car. Willow used magic on the plane. Faith let it slip that we are sisters, and now Gibbs wants answers," Ziva said very fast.

"Is Faith alright?"

"Yes she is fine," Ziva replied.

"Thank god. I don't think we could bring Willow back again if she lost another lover," Xander said. "What answers does he want?"

"If I know Gibbs then he wants to know how Faith is healing so fast. Why Buffy can lift a person heavier and tall then herself, and what it was that Willow did on the plane. In addition, he knows my father was the one who informed them where I was being held, and not him. So he is probably mad about that too, and wants to know why."

"Alright, Ziva. Thank you for the call. I'm going to make a few calls myself. I should have somebody there in a few hours, so sit tight, and try not to worry too much."

"Alright. I will try not to. Thank you."

You're welcome. See you later."

Ziva hung up the phone, and then realized just how exhausted she was from the pacing. She laid her head down on the desk to rest a minute just to rest. Rest turn quickly into sleep.

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In the interrogation room, Faith was pacing back and forth in front of the two-way mirror. While Willow, and Buffy were calmly sitting on the chairs at the table watching Faith pace.

"Faith, baby, why don't you calm down and come sit with us," Willow suggested.

"No. I'd rather pace. I don't see how you two can be so calm," Faith replied.

"We're calm because he has nothing to hold us on. We'll just bide our time until someone tells him to let us go," Buffy said.

"Why ain't we just breaking the door down?" Faith asked.

"Because that would be stupid," Buffy said.

"So you're callin' me stupid," Faith spat.

"No, Faith, you're being dumb. I'm just saying that if we break down the door then we'll be giving him a reason to charge us. So sit down and chill."

"Well then why can't you do, what you do best, Willow?" Faith asked cryptically.

"Eww, Faith now is not the time for that. You can wait until we get home," Buffy said.

"That's not what she's talking about," Willow chuckled.

"Oh, what is she talking about, then?" Buffy asked.

Willow projected her answer into Buffy's mind. 'Magic.'

"Oh," Buffy said aloud. Then she asked Willow in her head, 'Why ain't we just talking like this?'

'Don't want to raise suspicion. With Faith's little scene on the plane that came seemingly out of nowhere, I do not want to give him a reason to suspect anything more.'

'Got it,' Buffy mentally replied.

Aloud Willow answered Faith's earlier question. "Camera's, baby."

"Damn," Faith said.

"How long do you think he can hold us?" Willow asked.

"I don't know, but something tells me awhile, if he really wants to. We are talking about the government here. They can pretty much do whatever they want. If they let us make a phone call we could be out of here in a few hours, but I don't think he's going to give us that right," Buffy replied.

"Yeah me either," Willow said.

"Man this sucks. I'm supposed to be at home in my bed, fucking your brains into oblivion. Instead I stuck in a room, that has cameras and Buffy, and three men watching us through that two-way mirror," Faith ranted, pointing over her shoulder at the mirror.

She turned around and yelled, "Yeah that's right fuckers. I know you're behind the mirror, so why don't you bring your chicken asses in here, and talk to us, instead of hiding behind glass."

"Faith, you really need to calm down. I know you don't like being in confined spaces, but you getting yourself all worked up is just going to make it worse," Willow said gently.

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On the other side of the glass Gibbs, watch the women alongside Ducky, and Tony.

"Tony, go see what is taking Abby and McGee so long to get those background checks," Gibbs demanded.

"On it boss," Tony replied on his way out the door.

When Tony was gone, Gibbs asked Ducky, "What do you think of them?"

"I'm afraid I cannot say for sure what I think of them, Jethro. Other than that I quiet like the brunette," Ducky replied.

Gibbs looked at Ducky as if he had lost his mind. "You like the brunette. That's all you can say?"

"Yes. She has a rather unique personality. She speaks what is on her mind. It's rather refreshing," Ducky explained.

"Ducky, you need to get out of autopsy, more."

"Yes, I do agree with that, but I must say that you need to get out of your basement more often, as well. I will also say this. You are playing with fire and I do believe you are going to get burned."

"Why do you say that Ducky?"

"From experience," Ducky said cryptically.

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Tony strolled into Abby's lab looking for her and McGee. He had expected to find them both working on Gibbs' order, but instead he found McGee working on one of Abby's computers, and Abby sitting on a stool pouting.

"Abby, why are you not helping McGee?" He asked her.

"I refuse to help dig up dirt on them. It isn't right, and it isn't fair. They helped rescues Ziva, and I am not going to help Gibbs," Abby said.

"Gibbs isn't going to like this. You're going to be in big trouble," he told her.

"I don't care. He can lock me up and throw away the key, and I still would not partake in such a travesty," Abby said dramatically.

"Fine, but it's your grave your digging," he said, and then walked over to McGee.

"How much longer McGeek?" He asked.

"I've got most of it. I'm just trying to find out where Faith was for three years. It's as if she dropped off the face of the earth. There is no record of her anywhere," McGee said.

"Well tell that to Gibbs. He's waiting for you, and he's getting impatient," Tony said.

"Fine, just let me print this out and then we can go," McGee responded, and then printed out the last piece of information he could find on Faith.

"Abby are you coming?" McGee asked.

"No. I'm protesting," she replied.

"Suit yourself," McGee said and then left with Tony.

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Gibbs and Ducky were once again watching the women, when Tony and McGee entered the small room.

"Where's Abby?" Gibbs asked.

Tony and McGee looked at each other before Tony said, "She's protesting."

"Protesting? What is she protesting for?" Gibbs asked.

"She's protesting you, Boss. She isn't very happy that you have them locked in there, or that we're looking into their backgrounds," McGee said.

"She drives me crazy sometimes," Gibbs, said offhanded. "Alright what do you got?"

McGee opened the file he had in his hand and began telling them what he found. "Buffy and Willow were pretty easy to get. They both live in Sunnydale, California."

"The town that was destroyed a few years ago?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes. Buffy was accused of murder in the spring of 1998. She was cleared of the charges when her friends, Willow, Alexander Harris, Cordelia Chase, and the school librarian Rupert Giles informed the local police what really happened. She was expelled from school and reported as a runaway the next day. There is no record of her for that summer. Her expulsion was over-turned the next fall after she resurfaced, and she graduated with Willow in the spring of 1999. Their high school was blown up the same day. There was no cause determined."

"Willow and Buffy both went on to attend UC Sunnydale. Buffy dropped out half way throw her sophomore year, to help take care of her younger sister, Dawn Summers, because her mother was ill. Buffy was awarded custody of her sister a few months later, after their mother died. She spent the next couple of years working a fast food joint and then later as a counselor at the new Sunnydale High School."

"Willow was a great student, but at the end of her junior year she took a leave of absent after her girlfriend Tara McClay was murdered at the home they shared with Buffy. It is also reported that Buffy was shot that day, but made a miraculous recovery and disappeared from the hospital only an hour after she was admitted. Willow went off the grid for almost four months after that. The only record we have of her, is arriving in London, and then returning to Sunnydale in September."

"It was reported by a hospital outside of LA that all three of the women were still in Sunnydale when it was destroyed in the spring of 2003. They have lived model lives since then. They took over a company called the Watcher's council, which was based in London. They opened a school called The United Academy for Gifted Girls in Mayville, New York, and moved the Watchers Council Headquarters there."

"What about Faith?" Gibbs asked.

"Faith's background was much harder to find. Her mother died when she was ten. Her father was a no show. She bounced from foster home to foster home until she was sixteen and when a Professor at Harvard was awarded custody in November of 1997. She stayed with her until the professor was brutally murdered in June of 1998. I couldn't find anything on her until she showed up in Sunnydale a few months later."

"Faith and Buffy were questioned about the murder of the deputy Mayor Allen Finch, the following February. No charges were filed. A few months later, she showed up in the hospital. A civilian had found her on the back of his truck. She had been stabbed in the stomach and by the looks of it fallen of off something very high up. She was in a coma for eight months, before waking up in February of 2000, and then dropping off the grid until resurfacing with Buffy and Willow in 2003."

"That's three years McGee. You couldn't find anything?" Gibbs asked.

"Not a thing, Boss. It was almost as if those three years of her life were erased," McGee said.

"How could that even be possible?" Tony asked.

"I don't know," McGee replied.

"What has she been doing since then?" Gibbs asked.

"Helping to run the school and the Reformed Watchers Council, along with Willow, Buffy, Alexander Harris and Rupert Giles. Her and Willow also filed to be recognized as married couple in New York five months ago.

Since the fall of Sunnydale, they all have had clean records. They travel a lot though. Their credit cards show up all over the world, but they must have a private air plane and airport because they don't show up on any flight records."

"That's strange," Tony said.

"Rupert Giles. He was their librarian right?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes he was," McGee replied.

"Alright that was good work McGee. Run a check on Rupert and Alexander too."

"You got it, Boss," McGee said. He handed the file to Gibbs and then left.

"Where's Ziva?" Gibbs asked Tony.

"I saw her sleeping at McGee's desk on my way down to Abby's lab," Tony replied.

"Good, she needs to sleep. I think it's time to debrief our guests," Gibbs said.

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Faith had settled down a little since her outburst to the two-way mirror. Was now sitting on the floor leaning up against the wall that faced the door, nursing her wounded shoulder.

The three women looked to the door as Gibbs walked through it. He sat down at the table across from Willow and Buffy. He opened the file that McGee had given him and then pretended to read it for a few minutes.

"I'm going to start the debriefing now. I am going to answer you a series of question and you are to answer them honestly. Do you understand?" Gibbs said.

"Nice try, asshole. That's not how a debriefing works," Faith grumbled.

"I don't know who else you've been debriefed by, but this is how we do it," Gibbs lied.

"Whatever man. Let's just get this over with," Faith said.

"Good. Please state your full name for the record, please," Gibbs said.

"You know our damn names. You took our ids when you threw us in here," Faith retorted.

"Please state your fu…"

"Yeah, you said that already," Faith interrupted. "Faith Elizabeth Rosenberg-Lehane."

"Buffy Anne Summers."

"Willow Danielle Rosenberg-Lehane."

"Good. See that wasn't so hard. What where you doing in Somalia?"

"Same as you," Buffy said. She answered the question when Gibbs gave her an annoyed look. "We were there to rescue Ziva."

"What is your relationship to Ziva?"

"You already know that fuck face. Stop asking question that ya already know the answers to," Faith retorted angrily.

Gibbs looked at Willow and Buffy and then said, "Fine. Why did Director David inform you of Ziva location and not NCIS?"

Willow answered, "I don't know. You will have to ask him that."

"What does the Reformed Watcher's Council do?"

"That's classified information," Buffy said.

"Classified?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes. Classified, as in your not allowed to know," Buffy taunted.

"We'll see about that," Gibbs said. He directed his next question at Buffy. "How were you able to lift her with ease?"

"I work out a lot," Buffy replied.

He looked at Faith, and asked. "Where were you from February 2000 to April 2003?"

"This is bullshit," Faith said as she slowly stood up from the floor. "You have no grounds for these questions and you have no reason to keep us here. We're leaving, and we're taking Ziva with us."

Willow took a good long look at her wife and noticed the she was very pale, and looked like she was struggling to keep herself upright. Willow went over to Faith and felt her forehead. "Baby, you're burning up," She said to Willow, and then turned to Gibbs. "Faith's right. You have no reason to keep us here, so if you don't mind we are leaving."

This day had been a series of missing puzzle pieces, and if Gibbs did not put those missing pieces into their spots then he was sure he was going to lose it. These women were irking Gibbs in a way that no other person ever did. He knew that he was risking a lot by holding them, but he also had a gut feeling that something just was not right with them. The biggest thing he had a problem with though; was the fact that they apparently had a big part of Ziva's life, and she never bothered to tell him about them.

"I'm sorry but that isn't going to happen. You have information I want and I'm not letting you leave until I get it," Gibbs said.

"She needs to get to a doctor, and you have no reason to hold us," Willow said angrily.

"She openly threatened the life of the Mossad Director, and until I know she isn't a treat to him or anybody else she stays," Gibbs said.

"That a boat load of crap, Agent Gibbs. That man is the reason Ziva was in the god forsaken place, and Faith has every right to be mad about that," Buffy said.

"There is no evidence to support that accusation. I cannot allow you to leave," Gibbs said.

"Fuck this," Buffy said. "You have no reason to hold us so where leaving. Let's go."

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"Go in there and see what is going on," Ziva said.

"No. I want nothing to do with them, and what they are doing. You go in," Abby said. The two of them had been worrying since Abby woke Ziva up ten minutes ago about what was happening with the newcomers.

"I am not allowed in there. Abby, please. I must know what is happening with my sister," Ziva said.

That did it. Abby couldn't fight with Ziva when she pulled the concern sister card. She walked into the room and returned a few minutes later.

"I've never seen Gibbs like that before, Ziva. Something is wrong with your sister and he won't let them leave. Willow and Buffy are getting really mad."

"That is it. I can no longer wait out her like a little child. Come on we are going in," Ziva said, pulling Abby toward the interrogation room.

"Ziva," said a familiar voice form behind them, which made Ziva stop.

She whipped around to face the person who was responsible for all of this. Anger flared in her chest at the sight of her father, standing their looking like a concerned father. She knew the act to be the furthest thing from the truth, and it pained her. "Abba? What are you doing here?"

"I've come to bring you home, Ziva," Eli David said, kindly. A soft smile formed on his face. The same smile he would give her as a child. It irritated her.

"How did you know I was here?" Ziva asked.

"Director Vance informed me when he got the word that you were safe, and being escorted back to the States," Eli said. "It is good to see you safe," he said, as he grabbed Ziva for a hug.

Ziva returned the hug stiffly, but did not respond.

"We must be going, but first, I believe your sister is in there," He said, pointing to the door next to them.

Fear built up in her chest. "How do you know that?" she asked, casually, trying very hard to not show her fear. The last thing she wanted to do is give her father power with that knowledge.

"I overheard you talking with Ms. Sciuto," he said, as he looked at Abby. "We have much to discuss on the way home Ziva, but for now let's say good-bye to Faith."

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Buffy was furious with Gibbs. They had been arguing for ten minute about leaving, and they were no closer to getting out of there. Buffy was about ready to knock Gibbs out when the door suddenly opened.

Faith watched in anger as her father Eli David walked into the room with her sister trailing behind him stiffly.

Eli had his eyes on Faith, as he started to say hello to her. He barely made it half way through the word, when Faith summoned all of the energy she had left in her, and leapt across the small room at him. Her fist connected with his jaw just before she tackled him to the ground. Her fist was about to connect with the Director's jaw again, when she felt to strong sets of arms pulling her off him.

Gibbs helped Eli off the ground, while Ziva stood there stunned.

Faith started yelling at Eli, and struggling against Willow and Buffy who were holding her back from making a mistake.

"You bastard. I'm gonna kill you for what you did to Ziva."

"My dear daughter," Eli said, confirming his suspicions in the process, when nobody in the room seemed surprised to hear that Faith was his daughter. "I have done nothing to harm Ziva."

"You lying bastard. You set her up. You gave them the goddamn drug. You did that," Faith yelled, her weak body struggling harder against Buffy and Willow. If she hadn't of been weakened by her shoulder wound, then she could have easily broken free from the pair.

"I assure you. I have no idea what you are talking about," Eli said.

Faith seemed to calm down, so Willow and Buffy loosened their hold on her. This was a mistake, because the second Faith felt hold loosen she broke free and went to attack Eli again. Her path was block though by Tony who had just stepped into the room.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and carried her back over to Willow and Buffy.

"I want her arrested," Eli said.

"Abba. You can't do that," Ziva said softly.

"Yes I can. She may be my daughter, but she has no right to act in such a manner," Eli said. "Arrest her, I want to press charges."

Tony looked to Gibbs for instructions. Gibbs nodded his head, and then Tony pulled out his cuffs. He advanced on the feral woman cautiously.

Willow leaned forward and whispered in Faith's ear. "Don't resist, baby. Let him do his job and cuff you. We'll fix this as soon as we can. It's only a matter of time before the Calvary arrives."

Faith looked at Willow weakly, and nodded her head. She knew when to admit defeat. Willow was planning something, and she needed to trust her wife. She extended her arms, and allowed DiNozzo to cuff her.

"You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to a…" Tony started to say, but was interrupted by his own Director.

"Un-cuff her," Vance said.

"Why?" Gibbs asked.

"Because I say so," said a female voice from the door.

"Sam. Oh, thank goddess. You got here just in time," Willow said, relief evident on her face. This was much better then what she had been planning.

Samantha Finn walked into the room dressed in her full black military uniform. She handed a paper to Gibbs and then went over to Willow and Buffy

Gibbs read the paper and then said, "This is signed by the President."

"Yes it is. So if you will please un-cuff Ms. Lehane…"

"Mrs. Rosenberg-Lehane," Faith said.

"Oh... I'm sorry," Sam said stunned. "When did that happen?"

"Almost five months ago," Willow said happily.

"Don't worry, the rest of us didn't know until after they did it," Buffy added.

"It looks like we have a lot to get caught up on. Now please un-cuff Mrs. Rosenberg-Lehane and then we'll be on our way," Sam said formally.

"How do we know this is even legit," Gibbs said.

"It's legit, Gibbs. Tony un-cuff the lady," Vance said.

Tony un-cuffed Faith. He gave her an apologetic look, and then stepped backwards.

"I apologize for how you've been treated ladies, and I would like to thank you on behalf on NCIS for aiding in the rescue of Ziva. You are free to go," Vance said. He then turned to Gibbs and said, "My office. Now."

Tony, Gibbs and Director Vance left the room, with Abby chasing after them a few seconds later.

"This is not over Faith," Eli said as soon as the NCIS group left. "Come on Ziva. Let's go. We have a long flight ahead of us."

"No, Abba. I am going to stay here with Faith," Ziva said.

"You dare to defy me again, Ziva," He spat angrily.

"Yes, I no longer will take orders from you, Abba. I am quitting Mossad, and moving here permanently."

Ziva and Eli started arguing in rapid Hebrew. Only Willow was able to understand half of what they were saying.

The argument ended with Eli storming out of the room, leaving Ziva standing by the door in looking defeated. Faith started to walk over to her sister, but collapsed mid step. Willow dropped to her knees. Felt her forehead again, and then pushed the sleeve of Faith's tank top aside. She peeled the bandage away from the wound and inspected it.

"The wounds infected. We have to get her home. Now," Willow said.

"What happened to her?" Sam asked.

"She was shot," Buffy replied, as she bent down to pick Faith up. "We can't teleport in here."

They passed Ducky, who was standing outside the viewing room, on their way to the elevator. He said good-bye to them, with a knowing smile. Buffy thought to herself again that she needed to see what the old man knew.

The group was at the elevator when Abby came running down the stairs, yelling, "Hey, guys wait up."

The group stopped and waited for Abby to get to them.

"Can I come too?" She asked.

Buffy looked at Ziva, who nodded her head.

"Alright, come on," Buffy replied.

"What about work Abby?" Ziva asked.

"It's okay. I cleared it with Director Vance," Abby said, as the elevator doors closed.

They found a remote spot away from the building, grabbed hands and then Willow teleported them back to the Council.

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A red headed woman climbed into Eli David's limo fifteen minutes after he left the NCIS building.

"How did it go sir?" the woman asked.

"Not as well as I had hoped," Eli said. "Some black ops woman was able to get them released. It seems that you were successful with your tasked though. Faith is not looking well at all, and Gibbs is doing the exact opposite of what he normally would. That was very good work Sarah."

"Thank you sir," Sarah said. "It was easier than I expected it to be. Faith was shot so I slipped her the serum when I cleaned the wound. I told her it was an anti-infection drug. Then I gave it to her again when she pulled some stitches. I just slipped the drug you gave me into Gibbs' coffee when the flight attendant wasn't looking. Sir I already know what the serum does, but do you mind if I ask what the drug I gave Gibbs, does?"

"Certainly not my dear. I believe you have earned that piece of information. All the drug does is makes him focus obsessively on one thing. Whatever he was thinking about when he ingested it," Eli said.

"How could you be sure he was going to be thinking about Faith, and her friends?" Sarah asked.

"Ziva speaks very highly of Agent Gibbs. She tells me how determined he is when he has a mystery on his hands. I knew that he would only be thinking about them, for the simple fact that they showed up in the middle of a desert, seemingly out of nowhere. That is all it took. The whole plan really is quiet ingenious. Despite the little setback, the plan is running smoothly. It might even work better this way," Eli explained.

"What is the plan sir?" Sarah asked.

"That is something you have not earned, yet," he said.

"How long will it be until the drug wears off of Gibbs?" Sarah asked.

"Twenty-four hours or so. I want you to get close to him. Get to know him better, and report anything you think might be useful to me," Eli said.

"Yes sir. Do you want me to drug him again?"

"No that won't be necessary. Gibbs played his part. Even though he could not hold them, he still gave me time to see if the plan was working properly, without raising suspicions. You may go now."

"Yes sir." Sarah said, and then got out of the limo.

Eli pushed a button above him and said, "Driver, take me back to the hotel please."


	6. Broken Rules

Gibbs was fuming as he walked through the door of Vance's office. He hated being treated like a child, and in his drug addled mind that's exactly how he thought Vance was treating him. Being treated like a child was just the icing on his angry cake, compared to being embarrassed in front of his team, and being forced to let those woman go before he had a real chance to find out what they were hiding.

Vance was fuming as well, made relevant by him slamming the door closed behind him. He immediately yelled, "What the hell did you think you were doing, Gibbs? Those women were there to rescue Ziva, and you treated them like criminals."

"They're hiding something," Gibbs yelled.

"So damn what, Gibbs. They could be Public enemy number one for all I care. They helped rescue Ziva, and one of them got hurt in the process. That alone gives them the right to hide whatever they want to."

"I don't care if those women are the daughters of Mother Teresa. They are hiding something, and I will not stand here and be scolded like a child for trying to protect Ziva," Gibbs yelled back at him.

"Protect her from what, Gibbs. Women who put their lives at risk trying to save her. One of whom, is apparently her sister," he said, then calmly sat down.

"Yes. A sister Ziva didn't say a damn thing about."

"And there's the rub," Vance said. "I've just spent the last half an hour on the phone with the SECNAV, and he made it very clear that those women are off limits."

"I don't give a damn what SECNAV says," Gibbs yelled. "I want to know what the hell they are hiding, and I will not stop until I find out what it is."

"Yes, you will. If you continue to pursue them, you are putting both of our jobs on the line. Stay away from them. That's an order," Vance said.

In a brief moment of clarity Gibbs realized that arguing with Vance would get him nowhere, so he grumbled, "Fine," and then stormed out of the office.

Vance followed him down the stairs to where he was standing with Ducky, Tony, McGee, and Ducky. "DiNozzo, McGee," He said. "You did a good job in Somalia. Now go home. You too, Gibbs. You have a week off, and I don't want to see any of you in this building until next Monday."

"Yes, sir," Tony, and McGee said in unison but remained where they stood. Neither daring to leave until Gibbs gave the okay, which didn't come like they expected. Instead, Gibbs gathered up a few folders from his desk, before walking toward the elevator, calling over his shoulder to them. "Let's go home, boys."

Both men bid Ducky a quick farewell before following their boss. Both slightly confused as to why they were leaving, considering how they've spent the last few hour, but neither questioning it. They knew whatever Gibbs was planning would unfold soon enough.

Vance wasn't a stupid man. He knew that Gibbs wasn't going to let this drop until he got the answers that he was seeking. He just hoped that this wouldn't blow up in all of their faces. If the letter signed by the President, and the tongue lashing he received from the SECNAV were any indication, then these women were very powerful and very well connected.

Vance watched as the elevator doors close, and then turn to face Ducky, who let out a soft knowing chuckle. The old man gave Vance a sympathetic look before turning to leave.

Once the three men were clear of the building Gibbs told younger two that they were going to his house. Neither argued. Just got into their respective cars and followed Gibbs back to his place.

Nobody said a word until they were in Gibbs' basement, when Tony finally couldn't take it any longer and asked, "Boss, what's our game plan."

"Simple," Gibbs said. "We find out everything there is to know about those women. What their connection to Ziva is. Why we didn't know she had a sister. How did they even knew Ziva was in Somalia, and I want to know what the redhead did on the plane?" He pulled out the files he grabbed from his office, threw them onto his work table, and plopped down on his stool unceremoniously.

"McGee, find out where they're staying," Gibbs barked, as he opened one of the files. "DiNozzo, we need food. Go get some. We're not sleeping until we know."

"On it Boss," they replied in unison. Despite being extremely tired, neither wanted to argue with their boss. Even though they realized that Gibbs' behavior was a little out of character, they wanted to know what was going on, too. So they didn't question anything.

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Buffy took one last look at the sleeping half-sisters, and her redheaded best friend, before walking out of the infirmary and heading up to the main floor to find Xander, Sam, and Abby. As she passed through the entrance hall, she said hi to Lita, a slayer who managed the front desk at night. She peeked into the game room, living room, and the dining room, before finding Xander in the kitchen.

"Hey, how are they?" Xander asked, from his seat at the island as soon as she passed through the door.

"They're fine," Buffy replied, as she walked over to him, and looked around the room. "Where's Sam and Abby?" she asked.

"Sam went to tell the girls that you're back. Lita jumped the gun when Ziva called, and sounded the alarm, causing all of the girls to rally. I'm quite proud of them actually, considering most of them were in bed. The alarm was only on for a few minutes, but by the time I got down here to tell them it wasn't a slayer problem they were ready and waiting for instructions."

"What about Abby?"

"Dawn took Abby to her room. That woman is more hyper then Willow after five cups of coffee," Xander commented.

Buffy snorted. "Didn't think that was possible. Did you get the contract?"

"I have it, but she hasn't signed it let," Xander said.

"Why not?"

"Because, the contract comes with an explanation. Which you are much better at giving, then I am."

"Ah, you don't want to explain demons, slayers, and witches to the hyperactive Goth woman," Buffy teased. "Well Willow already told her about her being a witch, and she seemed to take it alright. How did you manage to keep her from bursting at the seams trying to figure it all out for so long?"

"I bribed her with sugary goodness, and then sent her with Dawn. Plus it's only been an hour since you guys got back," Xander said.

"Really?" Buffy asked, shocked. "It seemed a lot longer."

"I'm bet it did. How are they really?" Xander asked.

Buffy huffed, "I don't know. Ziva is going to be fine, but she is dehydrated and malnourished. The bastards gave her just enough food, and water to keep her alive, and if that wasn't bad enough they dosed her with the de-slayer serum every day for months. Liz isn't sure how being exposed to it for that long will affect her down the road."

"I thought that we gave that damn drug the boot," Xander said.

"We did, but there are a few people who knew how to make it and use it for evil apparently," Buffy said.

"Who the hell would be stupid enough to give it to a slayer?" Xander asked.

"Terrorists," Buffy simply said.

"Terrorists? Buffy we've dealt with a lot of things, but that's just insane. Who in their right mind would give terrorists that drug?"

"Eli David," Buffy said.

"Faith and Ziva's father? The Director of Mossad. Buffy what the hell am I missing, because I clearly missed something between the time you left here with no explanation, which breaks rule five by-the-way, and the phone call I got from Ziva, telling me that Faith was shot in Somalia," Xander said, irritated.

Buffy cut Xander off, with a passionate kiss. "I love you," she told him when they broke apart. "I'm sorry we broke rule five, but in my defense, Willow didn't tell me where we were going until we got there."

"I love you, too," He said, clearly calmer. "What is going on?"

"I honestly have no idea. All we know for sure is that Ziva was sent on a mission by her father. She was captured, held captive, and drugged with the serum for months. Eli David is the one who told Willow where Ziva was, and he is one of the only people alive that knows anything about that damn drug. Everything else is just speculation at this point, but we think Eli set the whole thing up."

"Why would he do that? She's his daughter, for crying out loud."

"I don't know, but we will. Tomorrow we'll set up a game plan."

"What about Faith?"

"She's sleeping, but her shoulder's infected. Liz is running test to make sure it isn't anything really bad, but for now, she's on the strongest antibiotics we have," Buffy said, as she got a glass of ice tea.

"But she's going to be okay, right?"

"Liz thinks so, but she said she can't be sure until the antibiotics make it through her system," Buffy said, then made a funny face. "We've had some serious mind fuck days, but I think this one tops all of them."

"Yeah. I'm definitely having trouble wrapping my head around it," Xander said. "How's Willow handling it?"

"Pretty good, considering her wife just got shot, and we just rescued her sister-in-law from freaking terrorists. Oh yeah, not to mention held by a government agent who happens to be Ziva's boss, err… former boss. Ziva has some explaining to do about that. I cannot for the life of me figured out why she didn't tell us she worked for the American Government." Buffy replied.

"Wait. What?" Xander asked, confused.

"Apparently, Ziva worked for a branch called NCIS and didn't tell us. Here this entire time I thought she was a Mossad Officer assigned to Washington."

"Well, maybe she is. She has to have a good reason for breaking rule twenty right. Maybe Faith knew. Maybe it was to protect us. Look on the bright side. It's a good thing Ziva called us, or you would have been stuck there for a while. How are you doing?"

"I'm good considering. Right now, I just want to know what the hell is going on."

"Well, I told Sam to rally the research team into the library," Xander told her. "Once you give them the run down, and help me to fill in the Goth Willow, you should go to bed. You've had a long day, and I have this nagging feeling you're going to need your rest."

"Sounds good," She replied, then place a chaste kiss on his lips. "Let's go, Watcher-dude."

"Hey, I am not a Watcher. I am not a stuffy, repressed British dude," Xander grumbled. Buffy smiled softly at him, gave him another kiss, and then walked out of the kitchen, with Xander following closely behind her.

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Ducky waited until he returned home to call an old friend. It had been some time since he had spoken to Rupert, but in light of the today's events, he felt it was long past due. Since it was already past five in England, he was hoping the Giles would already be awake.

"Hello," Giles said, from across the line.

"Hello, Rupert. I'm sorry if I woke you."

"Not at all, Ducky. It's good to hear from you. It's been far too long."

"Yes, it has," replied Ducky. "I've had quite a day. Met a few interesting women, I believe you know very well."

"Who would that be?" Giles asked.

"Ms. Summers, and both the Mrs. Rosenberg-Lehane's," Ducky replied.

"Ah. How are my girls? I haven't spoken to them in a few weeks."

"Not well I'm afraid. Not well at all," Ducky said solemn, and then went on to explain Ziva's disappearance, rescue, and what had happened since the group returned from Somalia.

"Dear God. Are they alright?" Giles asked, frantically.

"Ah. That is why I am calling, dear friend. I do believe that they are not. I would very much like to see them for myself, however, I do not know where they are, and I don't want to raise suspicion with Jethro."

"I see," Giles said. "They are at 313 Slayer Ave. Mayville, New York."

"Quite a fitting street if I do say so myself."

"Yes, it is. The children thought so as well. Didn't even see the building before they decided they wanted the property," Giles chuckled. "I will be taking the first available flight to Mayville, so I will see you in a few days then my friend."

"Alright. Have a safe flight," Ducky said, and then hung up. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he was excited at the prospects of getting to know the famous Scooby Gang. Every time they spoke, Giles always had a good story to tell about them.

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Since there hadn't been a lot to tell the research team, Buffy and Xander were in and out of the library in five minutes. They basically only wanted to know everywhere Eli David had been in the last year, and background information on Gibbs. A least for the time being.

When they got to Dawn's room they expected to see Abby talking Dawn's ear off, but instead found the complete opposite. Dawn was silently reading a book on her queen sized bed, with Abby asleep next to her.

"How did you manage to get her to calm down?" Xander question, quietly.

"I didn't. She was driving me crazy so I cast a knockout spell that Willow taught me," Dawn said, not looking up from her book.

"Dawn. You know that you are not allowed to use magic on non-threatening individuals. You broke rule number ten," Xander scolded.

"Chill, Watcher-man. I did it for her own safety," Dawn argued.

"I am not a watcher, and what danger could she possibly be in. This building is completely secure."

"She was in danger of me killing her. She's more hyper then Willow was three years ago when she had been up for two days straight helping to fend off an apocalypse, and then study for her finals. We all were ready to strangle Willow then too."

Buffy looked sympathetic. She remembered that incident very well. Not only was Willow massively hyper from sleep deprivation, and a caffeine overload, but her magic was close to the surface. Random thing kept happening to them all because of it. At one point, every person in their Scotland castle had found themselves floating in midair. That was not a fun thing to wake up to.

"Despite the fact that it is slightly horrifying experience, it still does not mean you can break the rules, missy. Entirely too many of them have been broken today. I don't like it. You're grounded. All of you." Xander said.

Buffy snorted.

"I'm twenty-three years old. What are you going to do, lock me in my room?" Dawn asked rhetorically.

"Yes I will," Xander said.

"Baby, I know we worried you but you need to chill out," Buffy said, causing the one-eyed man to relax a little.

"How's Faith, and Ziva?" Dawn asked.

"They're okay. We'll know more tomorrow. Do you want me to move her to a guest room?"

"No. She's alright here. I'm hoping she was just overly excited about finding out magic is real, and that she'll be calmer in the morning," Dawn replied.

"Alright. We're going to bed. Goodnight," Buffy said.

"Night Sis. Night Watcher-dude," Dawn teased, earning her a scowl from the man, before being pulled out of the room.

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"Boss," McGee said, looking up from his computer. "I can't find them anywhere."

"What do you mean you can't find them? They have to be staying somewhere McGee," Gibbs snarled.

"I can't find any hotel rooms, or apartments in their names," he replied.

"Well maybe they're at Abby's place, or they used Abby's name to get a hotel room," Gibbs said.

"They're not at Abby's," Tony said, not bothering to look up from the file he was reading. "I swung by there on my way back."

"And I checked Abby's name as well, Boss. It's like they disappeared," McGee said.

"That's not possible McGee. Six women do not just disappear into thin air. Did you check for the Military woman? Samantha Finn."

"Yes. There is nothing for her here either," McGee said.

"Then get the address for that school. If they're not here, that means they're on their way home," Gibbs said. He was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea, and his head was feeling foggy. He tried to shake it off, but it was consuming him. He needed sleep. They were getting nowhere. Some sleep would do them good. "Go home. Get some sleep, and be back here no later than eight with your bags packed. We're leaving for Mayville in the morning."

Again, neither men question their boss. Just simply said, "Got it, Boss," and then were up the steps and out the door.

Gibbs didn't move at first, as he was still fighting off nausea, but then slowly moved toward his living room. With each passing moment, he was becoming more and more confused and unsettled. He sunk onto the couch, without taking his clothing off, and quickly passed out.


	7. Woken

Willow was woken by her wife's right hand gently stroking her head. She hummed with contentment at the simplicity of the gesture. This was the side of Faith that the Scoobies rarely saw, but what she woke to every day. It was something so small and simple, but it meant the absolute world to her.

For this morning it meant that Faith was alright. When she had been carried into the infirmary last night, she had been unresponsive. While infections weren't uncommon among slayers, the frighteningly fast spreading pace of it was. Slayers were known to fight them off better than mere mortals. If an infection did settle in, it usually didn't affect the slayer for several days, not hours.

Despite not opening her eyes, Faith knew her wife was awake. The soft hum she released was a dead give-a-way. "Morning, beautiful," Faith said, her voice weak, and rough yet. "Why are you sleeping in that chair, when there is a perfectly good bed, with your smoking hot, nearly naked wife already in it."

Yep. Faith was going to be fine.

"I don't know. Said smoking hot, nearly naked wife, scared me quite a bit last night," Willow replied. She opened her eyes, lifted her head and then looked at her wife.

"I'm sorry," Faith said.

"How long, before you collapsed, were you feeling the effects of the infection?" Willow asked.

Shit. Busted. "Couple of hours, I guess."

"Well, your acting skills have gotten better. Wasn't the best time to test them out on us, though," Willow said. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"What the hell did you expect me to do, Red. We were locked in an interrogation room. There was nothing we could have done," Faith attempted to explain her logic behind keeping quiet.

"Baby. We could have gotten him to at least take you to the hospital," Willow said, tears forming in her eyes. "When you collapsed it scared the frilly heck out of me. I love you so much. I cannot lose you. You have to promise me you will never keep something like that from me again."

The tears running down her wife's face broke Faith's heart. "Yeah. I promise. I love you, too."

Willow smiled gently as she stood and sat on the bed next to Faith. Leaning down, she planted a searing kiss on her wife's lips. It didn't last long, but Willow poured all of the love, she felt for the brunette into it.

"Damn," Faith said when Willow pulled away. "I'm glad I'm alive."

"So am I," Willow said, and then whispered into her ear, "And that's just a taste of what you'll get when your better."

Faith felt her clit twitch in anticipation. "I'm all better now," she husked out.

"Nope. Your punishment for not informing us that you weren't feeling well is to wait. Sorry," Willow said.

"You're an evil woman sometimes," Faith grumbled.

"Yeah, but you love me anyway," Willow said, smiling, and then looked serious. "How are feeling this morning?"

"Good. A lot better than last night," Faith answered. "I'm assuming you teleported us back here. What did the Doc say?"

"The only thing Liz was sure about was that the wound was infected. She's running some test to find out why it spread so fast. She also wants to do surgery on the shoulder to try and repair the damage."

"Great," Faith sarcastically said.

"It will be fine. Liz is the best at what she does. You're lucky she agreed to come with us," Willow said.

Faith knew she was right. After all, Faith had been the one to convince Liz to leave her job and join the fold. It had been five years since Willow sent Faith to find a new slayer, who happened to be an old friend from Boston.

Liz, who was five years older than Faith, had been Faith's protector when they were younger. She made sure none of the other kids around the neighborhood picked on her, gave her all of her old shoes, clothing, and coats, and she always brought her food to eat. She later confided that her mother had told her to look out for her. At the time she didn't understand but she did it anyway.

Faith had been fourteen when Liz went off to college. That had been the last time they had seen or spoken to each other. Not long after Liz left, Faith ran away and was later taken in by her watcher Diana. It was quite a shock when the slayer she was going to retrieve turned out to be Liz. For the both of them.

"How's Ziva?" Faith asked, and then looked over at her still sleeping sister.

"Dehydrated, malnourished, exhausted, but alive. Liz isn't sure what effects being drugged with the serum every day for months will have on her body," Willow said quietly.

"What about mentally?" Faith asked, more to herself than her wife. "She was held captive for months. We don't know what the hell those bastards did to her."

"When she's ready, she'll tell us. Until then, we'll just be here for her," Willow said.

"I'm not letting her out of my sight again. I should never have left her in Tel Aviv. I should have made her come back to Scotland with us when we agreed to get to know each other."

"Baby there was nothing you could have done. She had her own life to live," Willow tried to ease her wife's guilt.

"Yes, there was. There is always something else you could have done," Faith said, and then started crying. "Damn it. I haven't spoken to her in nearly five months. I should have known something was wrong. We've never gone more than a week without talking to each other."

"She told you she was going undercover and wouldn't be able to contact us. Baby, there was nothing you could have done," Willow said, trying in vain to calm her down.

"She is right, Faith," Ziva's tired voice suddenly sounded through the large room. "There was nothing you could have done. I cut off all ties when I went under for a reason. To protect you. Please do not blame yourself."

"But you're my sister Ziva. It's my job to protect you," Faith said.

"And it is my job to protect you. No matter what. It is a draw. Please do not blame yourself."

Faith didn't say anything. There was no use in doing so. No matter what her wife and sister said, she was always going to blame herself, but Willow was right. She had to be there for Ziva know, and she silently vowed to never let anything like this happen to her again.

"How are you feeling, Z?" She asked.

"I am still tired, but I am feeling much better," Ziva replied. "How are you feeling?"

"Peachy. Dying to get out of here, and go have some fun," Faith said, with a cheeky smile.

"Well, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait," Liz said from a doorway at the end of the room. She walked to the women and handed two folders to Willow, who opened the file with Faith's name on it and started reading it. "You have a serious infection, but what worries me more is how it spread so quickly."

"Are you sure about this?" Willow asked, looking up from the folder.

"Yes. Did the tests myself," Liz answered.

"Damn. How is that even possible?" Willow wondered aloud.

"How is what even possible? Red you're scaring me," Faith said.

"Someone slipped you the de-slayer serum," Willow replied.

"What? How the hell is that even possible?" Faith asked. "I don't feel like I'm not a slayer."

"You don't at first. You feel tired and out of it, and then one day you go to use one of your abilities, and there not there," Ziva replied.

Faith tried to sense the magical signatures of the women around her but wasn't able to. "Damn it. How long until the drug wears off?"

"I'm not sure. You don't have a high level in your bloodstream, so I'm assuming you were administered the drug either in small doses over the last few day, or in a large dose in the last twenty-four hours."

"Red, how is this possible?" Faith asked softly, suddenly very concerned with what this could mean.

"There are three possibilities that I can think of at the moment," Willow said, her mind working in overdrive. "One we have a mole living in the building. The second is that the bullet was laced with the stuff. That one being the least likely. I don't think they could get a high enough concentration on it, or there was a plant on the plane."

"Do you really think one of our girls would do that?" Faith asked.

"I don't know. I would like to think not, but even with all of the precautions we've taken, there's always that possibility," Willow said. "Liz, do you think it's possible that bullet was laced."

"I don't think so. The bullet traveled straight through, and did the amount of damage that you would expect from a gunshot wound. If it was on the bullet, then I wouldn't have been able to detect it in her blood, and if it was a hollow point It wouldn't have traveled straight through, it would have created more damage," Liz explained. "The wound shows signs that it was healing properly and then it's like your healing stopped. I think the most likely choice is that there was a plant on the plane."

"The doc on the plane injected me with something. She said it was an anti-infection drug," Faith said.

"Clearly, it didn't work. I agree with you, Liz. A plant on the plane is the most likely." Willow said. "If it was the doctor that means Eli has a well thought out plan. For the time being, we're going to have to treat everybody as a suspect. At least until we know for sure."

"I think that is a good idea," Ziva said.

"Do you know what the doctor's name is?" Willow asked.

"Um… Sarah something," Faith answered.

"Sarah Wayne," Ziva supplied. "I was surprised that she was on the plane. We have never had a doctor on the scene with us. Except for Ducky. I am not sure if she works for NCIS, or if she is an outside source."

"We have to talk to Buffy," Faith said.

"You have to rest Faith. Please let me handle this for now. Let Liz fix you up. I'll go fill in Buffy and the research team, and then I'll be back," Willow pleaded.

"I don't have a choice, do I," Faith grumbled.

"No you don't," Willow said, then leaned over to kiss her again, and then whispered in her ear, "Besides you're going to need to save all the energy you have for when you do get out of here."

"Tease," Faith called out to her wife as she walked out of the room.

Liz checked Ziva's vitals and changed her IV first, and then repeated the process with Faith. Adding in cleaning, and inspecting her wound to the routine. Since Ziva was awake when they were brought in, she didn't need to explain what her captivity had done to her body. Faith, however, was unconscious at the time and need to be informed of what was to be expected during her recovery.

"It is looking a lot better than it was last night," Liz told her, as she re-bandaged it. "I want to open it back up to take a look. I couldn't do it last night because you were not stable enough, and I didn't want to risk the infection spreading further."

"Is surgery really necessary?" Faith wanted to know.

"Yes," Liz replied. "I want to see what kind of damage the bullet did inside. Make sure there are no torn ligaments that need to be repaired, and to see how bad the infection is. I might have to remove some damaged or infected tissue."

Faith was feeling uneasy at the idea of being drugged, but she trusted Liz and if she said this needed to happen then she wouldn't fight it. "Alright. When do you want to do this?"

"In a couple of hours. I want you to have another round of antibiotics before we do it. Just in case. Once you're out of surgery, I'll have a better idea of how fast you'll recover," Liz told her, and then pointedly said, "Rest up. Both of you."

Once Liz left the room, Faith turned her head, and asked, "Are you okay Ziva?"

"I do not know," Ziva answered honestly. "It is a lot of information to absorb. I am still not sure I believe that Abba is behind this all. It seems like the most logical, but…"

"But he's your dad. I get that Z. I'm honestly hoping there is a reason behind all of this, but you have to prepare yourself for the worst," Faith said.

"I know," Ziva said softly. "I missed you. I am so glad that you are okay."

"I missed you, too. I'm so sorry I didn't come looking for you," Faith said.

"It is alright, Faith. I told you I would not be reachable for a while. I do not blame you," Ziva said, tiredly.

"Willow's right. We should rest. It's barely seven, and you sound tired. Go back to sleep." Faith barely got the words out before Ziva slipped back to sleep. She smiled softly at how peaceful Ziva looked.

She often wondered how different her life would have been if they had been raised together. How different she would be, but it was moments like these that she was grateful for the life she had lived. She didn't know if she would appreciate something like this if they had grown up together.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Gibbs was woken by a loud banging, followed by heavy footsteps. In his disoriented state, he forgot that Tony and McGee were supposed to be there so they could leave for Mayville. He dropped McGee, who had been closest to him, with a quick right jab to his jaw and seemingly materialized a small handgun from nowhere and pointed it at Tony.

"Whoa, Boss. It's just us. Stand down. Stand down," Tony frantically yelled.

"DiNozzo, what the hell are you doing here?" Gibbs asked, not allowing McGee to get up.

"We're supposed to be here by eight, remember. That's what you told us last night, Boss," McGee said.

"McGee, What the hell?" Gibbs asked rhetorically, and then let the man up.

"Boss, are you feeling alright?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Gibbs answered on auto-pilot, before thinking it over. He really wasn't feeling alright. His mouth was dry, vision cloudy, his head hurt, and he was having trouble remembering what happened after they rescued Ziva. "No, I'm not. What day is it?"

It's Thursday, the day after we rescued Ziva," Tony answered.

"What's going on, Boss?" McGee asked.

"I think I was drugged," Gibbs answered.

"What? When? By who?" Tony fired off.

"I don't know. I'm having trouble remembering yesterday."

"Well, that would explain why you were acting so weird yesterday," McGee said.

"What are you talking about McGee?" Gibbs asked.

Tony and McGee explained together everything that happened since they rescued Ziva. Hearing it was helping to bring back his memory a little, but he was still confused. He was horrified at how he treated those women. They didn't deserve that, not matter what they were hiding.

"Ziva's sister was shot. Is she alright?" Gibbs asked.

"Um… we don't know, boss," McGee answered. "We haven't been able to find them yet. That's why we're here. To go to the school they run."

"Okay. Do you have the number for them?"

"Yeah. I have the number for the school in by bag," McGee answered and then went to retrieve it from his car.

"Have you eaten yet, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

"No, Boss. Figured we would wait for you."

"Good thinking. I need some food in me and then maybe things will make more sense to me," Gibbs said, and then shuffled un-Gibbs like into the kitchen and pulled out the leftovers from the previous night.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Buffy and Xander were woken up by frantic knocking on their bedroom door. Xander groaned and pulled his pillow out from under his head over slammed it into his ear.

Buffy got up and open the door, to reveal Willow. She knew right away that her best friend was in research mode. "What's up? Is Faith alright?"

"She's okay. She's awake now. I told her I'd be back soon, so can you guys get ready. There's a lot we have to go over."

"Yeah, alright," Buffy said, and then turned back to her boyfriend. "Come on Xan. We have to get up."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm up," Xander groaned as he got out of bed. A minute later he was fully dressed and was at the door. "Hey, Wills. How are you this fine morning?"

"I'm fine," Willow replied tiredly. "I just want Ziva and my wife safe."

"They will be. We will make sure of that," Xander said.

"Xander," Buffy hollered from the bathroom. "Grab the contract. We'll drop it off at Dawn's room on our way to the library."

"Now who doesn't want to tell the hyperactive Goth chick about slayers, witches, and demons," Xander teased.

"Dawn tells it better than I do," Buffy whined, sticking her head out of the bathroom.

"We don't have to get Abby to sign that damn thing," Willow said. "From what Ziva has told me and Faith, Abby is fiercely loyal. I think we can trust her."

"Alright. I'll write a note on the back of it for Dawn and slip it under her door," Xander said.

Willow smiled at her friend's antics. "You're both wimps."

"Yup," Buffy said, walking out of the bathroom with a huge grin on her face. "But ya love us anyway.

"Yeah, yeah, come on," Willow said.

They slipped the contract under Dawn's door, and then went to the library. The research team hadn't found much out about Eli. Only that this was the first time he had left Israeli soil in several years. They were currently trying to get his phone records as well as a list of his visitors. Their attempts were proving futile. It seemed that Eli David had foreseen this happening and had covered his ass.

Willow informed them about what her, Ziva, Liz, and Faith had discussed. She had set the research team to finding everything out about the doctor and everybody else who was on the plane.

Buffy and Xander were shocked upon hearing how not just one but two slayers had been attacked in the same fashion so closely together. That one of the attacks had happened right under the noses of at least part of the council was even more worrisome. They had not seen this level of attack in years.

Without further discussion, Buffy pulled out her cell phone as she listened to Willow, her mind racing through the possibilities. "One second," she said as her best friend finished her explanation. Buffy quickly typed out a text that would reach every Watcher, Slayer, Witch, and Demon on the council's payroll.

The Slayers had moved to DefCon 3.

The Text sent, Buffy then turned back to her best friend. She was having a very hard time believing that there could be a plant in the building. Most of the slayer, witches, and watchers had been with them since Scotland. "Willow do you really think somebody here could be a spy?"

"No I don't, but we can't rule anything out," Willow said. "Eli's a smart man, and so far he's had a smart plan. We need to find out who's working for him, and why he's doing it."

"I think the why is more important," Buffy said. "This could be completely human driven, or Eli could be working with, or for a demon. Demon we can fight. Humans are a little trickier. The last time our Big Bads were humans messing with magic it didn't turn out so well."

"I agree," Xander replied. "Human enemies are unpredictable."

"So where do we start?" Buffy asked.

"Allies," Willow stated.

"Good idea," Xander said. "We have Sam already. Military help might come in handy down the road."

"Yeah, but I don't think it will be enough this time," Willow said.

"Then who Willow. We have Angel and his crew, Sam and her crew, and we have all of the contacts we've made since taking over the Council, plus the ones that came along with the company. What more do we need."

"NCIS," Willow stated. "The theory that we are leaning more towards is that there was a plant on the plane. A plane carrying NCIS agents. The fastest and easiest way to get to the doctor is to go through them, and from what Ziva has told me and Faith, Gibbs will be an asset to us."

"First off let me remind you how he treated us last night," Buffy said, and then asked rhetorically. "Does he strike you as somebody willing to help us? Secondly, I would like to point out the extreme lack of information on Ziva's part. Xander and I had no clue that Ziva was working at NCIS."

"Ziva has her reason for keeping her job from everybody else," Willow said. "As for Agent Gibbs, I believe that his attitude last night is not a good example of the man himself. Given the information he wants, he could make a powerful ally."

"I guess we'll just have to trust that you know what you are doing, Willow," Buffy said. "We should go wake Sam up. We need her to rally her own troops."

"Good idea," Willow replied. "I'm going back to Faith and Ziva. I want their input before I make the call to Agent Gibbs."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Dawn was woken by an annoying tapping on her shoulder. In an attempt to ignore it, she burrowed further into her bed, or at least she attempted to. The bed was being blocked by a warm body. Realizing that she was practically laying on top the older women, she threw herself backward, resulting in her getting tangled in the blankets. As she tumbled out of bed she hit the floor, hard.

"Ow, that hurt," Dawn whined, as she attempted to untangle herself.

Abby giggled at the girl. "What did you do that for? I was perfectly content with you where you were. I just wanted to know how we got there."

Dawn stopped fighting with the blankets, laid down, and looked up at the giggling woman. The innocent look she was giving her, along with that comment made Dawn want to laugh with her. "I cast a spell on you to put you to sleep," She said, before fully thinking it through.

"Awe. I see said the blind man," Abby said and then giggled again.

Dawn was thrown by the giggling woman. Most people would be horrified to learn that a spell was cast on them, but she was giddy. Unless the giddiness was a side effect from the spell. She'd have to ask Willow. Until then Dawn figured it wouldn't hurt to just ask her how she felt about it. "Are you okay with the whole magic thing?"

"Well, I would prefer that you didn't cast anymore on me without my permission, but it's still so cool," Abby answered. "So you're a witch too. Like Willow is."

"Yes. Not on the same level as Willow, but I dabble a bit," Dawn replied, as she finally wrestled her way out of the blankets, and plopped back onto the bed; silently musing as to how she managed to get so tangled.

"Will you show me some magic? Please." Abby asked.

Dawn thought it over and decided it couldn't hurt to give her a quick show. While she had been on the floor, she noticed that a piece of paper had been slipped under her door. Knowing her sister, she figured the paper was the contract that Abby had to sign, and Buffy wanted her to do her dirty work.

She floated the paper in between them and then snatched it out of the air. She was right. It was the contract. She floated a pen from her desk and her writing board from the floor in between them also.

Abby looked like she was a kid in a candy store at the show of magic, and it brought a smile to Dawn's face. It was rare that she met somebody who was this happy to see a little magic. Most people, who have just learned that magic exists, are really freaked out.

Dawn looked over the paper to make sure it was what she though. It was but there was a note written on the back. "Looks like you get lucky. You don't have to sign this contract, and you still get the story."

Dawn filled Abby in on everything. She was impressed with Abby's ability to stay quiet during her story since she looked like she was going to explode the entire time. When Dawn was finished with the long tale, Abby really did explode. Verbally. One question lead into another, then another, and another. Dawn couldn't keep track of them all.

She was used to Willow-babble, but Abby was short-circuiting her brain. After nearly ten minutes of Abby-babble, she threw her hand over the older woman's mouth. "You are worse than Willow," she told her. "One question at a time."

Abby thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Why didn't Ziva tell me about this?"

"I don't know. You'll have to ask her yourself," Dawn answered.

"Can I see Ziva?"

"Sure, let me get dressed, and then we can go," Dawn replied and then got off the bed and moved toward her closet. "Is there anything you want to know, or want me to clear up?"

"You're the good guys right?"

"Yeah. We're the good guys," Dawn said, as she took her shirt off, and replaced it with a new one.

"Good," Abby said.

"That's it," Dawn chuckled. "Not even five minutes ago questions were pouring out of your mouth like hot lava, and now nothing."

"I forget them, now," Abby said sheepishly. "Hey, do you have Caf-Pows up here? Where is here by the way?"

"Mayville, New York, and I have no clue what a Caf-Pow is," Dawn answered.

Abby was so shocked by what Dawn just said that she fell off the bed. "You don't know what a Caf-Pow is."

Dawn laughed at the face Abby was making. "Come on. Let's go see Faith and Ziva."


	8. Factors

Faith was asleep when Willow returned from seeing Buffy and Xander. Ziva was still awake though so she took a seat next to her sister-in-law.

"How are you feeling?" Willow asked.

"I am tired but very glad to be away from that place," Ziva answered, giving Willow a soft smile.

"I'm glad you're okay," Willow replied. She grabbed Ziva hand. "Don't be afraid to talk to us, about anything." Ziva didn't respond, instead just gave her a soft smile, and squeezed her hand.

"You missed a lot," Willow stated.

"I can see that. When did you move here?" Ziva asked.

"About four months ago. We had been preparing the school for a while, but it was top secret. Only Giles, Xander, Buffy, Faith, and I were in the loop."

"Do you like it here?" Ziva asked.

"I won't lie. I miss the castle, but I'm so glad to be back in the States, again."

Ziva looked at her sleeping sister, and then asked, "When did you get married?"

"Five months ago. It was all very sudden, and nobody has heard about how it happened."

"Why not?" Ziva asked.

Willow chuckled, and then answered, "Because Faith is having so much fun teasing them with it."

Ziva laughed at that confession. "You are a very good wife then. I'm glad you gave my sister a chance. You are the best person for her. She is a very lucky woman."

"I'm the lucky one," Willow said, looking over to the woman in question. "She brought me back to life again. In so many ways. When Kennedy cheated on me I was sure that I wasn't going to give my heart away again, but then Faith started spending more and more time around me. She made me feel so special for no reason at all."

"I remember the day you asked her out," Ziva said, laughing lightly. "She called me and was…um… freaking up."

"Freaking out," Willow said correcting her sister-in-law with a teasing smile.

Ziva gave Willow mock glare before continuing, "freaking out. That had been the first time I heard her like that. Then when you kissed her, I swear she was worse than a teenager."

"I didn't know that," Willow said. "She's lucky to have you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to her. I hope you know how much she loves you."

"I do," Ziva replied. "I love her too. We are both lucky to have her in our lives."

"Yes we are," Willow replied. "I have the research teams working on what we talked about. We have Sam mobilizing her team in case we need them, and Buffy and Xander are going through our contacts for potential help."

"What about Abby?" Ziva asked.

"We slipped a note under Dawn's door asking her to fill Abby in, without making her sign the contract. Dawn will most likely bring her here to see you after she's done," Willow explained. "I think that your former boss will be an asset to us."

"Normally I would say the same thing, but Gibbs was acting very strange yesterday. Almost like he was himself," Ziva said.

"I think he was drugged," Abby's said. She was standing in the doorway next to Dawn. She squealed while running to engulf Ziva in a big hug. "Hi, I'm so glad you're okay."

"I missed you as well Abby," Ziva said.

Abby let go of Ziva and looked at her with a very serious look and said, "You have some explaining to do, missy. I thought we shared everything with each other."

There was no need for Abby to elaborate on what she was talking about. Ziva knew that one day she would be able to safely tell the woman, and then she would have to answer for keeping secrets from her. "I am sorry, Abby. I wanted to tell you about Faith, and myself, but I could not. I had to protect my sister, at all cost."

Abby didn't get a chance to respond, because Faith, who had woken up by Abby's loud squeal, asked, "Protect me from what?"

"I had to protect you from Abba, Faith. I am sorry that I never told you, but he threatened your life if I kept in contact."

"So that's why you jumped on the bandwagon so fast when I suggested that we keep our relationship low-key. I just didn't want to cause problems between you and him, but you were trying to save my life."

"Ziva, that is a dangerous secret to keep," Willow said. "You should have told us. We could have protected both of you. You didn't have to lie to your friends like that."

"I am very sorry," Ziva said.

"Never apologized. It's a sign of weakness," Abby imitated Gibbs, making Ziva laugh.

"She's right," Faith said. "Don't apologize for trying to do the right thing."

"So we have another piece of the puzzle. The quicker we figure out the why he's doing this, the quicker we can predict his next move. Until then I really need Agent Gibbs' personal number. If you're right Abby, and he was drugged, then I need a sample of his blood. It might help us out, and Gibbs himself could prove useful. Plus it means I won't have to break as many laws in order to get the NCIS personnel files."

"Here, you can use my phone to call him. Gibbs will always answer for me," Abby said and then handed her phone to Willow. "Tell him to call Ducky, and have him draw blood. Do you have a lab here?"

"Yes we do," Willow answered. "I'll have Liz show you it later."

"Cool. Tell Gibbs to send it here, and I'll analyze it," Abby said.

"I'll do you one better," Willow said. "I'll tell him to bring it here himself, along with the rest of your team."

"Ziva, when you're feeling better, I'm going to need you to tell me everything that you can remember," Willow said.

"Okay, Willow," Ziva replied.

"Hey babe," Faith said, suddenly. "I'm starving. Am I allowed to eat?"

"Sorry sweetheart, not until after your surgery," Willow replied, and then looked to Ziva. "You should eat something, though. Liz said that you can have broths and Jell-O for now."

"Yummy," Ziva said sarcastically.

"Dawnie, will you take Abby to the kitchen and have Andrew make us some food, Please? Tell him to send food up to the library, and then bring some Jell-O for Ziva."

"Sure, Willow," Dawn replied. After bidding the bed bound girl's goodbye, the two of them left.

"You're almost done with this round of antibiotics, so I'm going to go and talk to Liz about your surgery," Willow told Faith.

"Okay babe. I love you," Faith said, and then captured Willow's lip in a chaste kiss.

"I love you, too. Get some more rest. I'll be back after I talk to Liz, and call Agent Gibbs," Willow said, and then walked toward Liz's office at the end of the long room.

Faith looked at her sister and said, "Ziva. Promise me you won't keep anything like that from me again."

"I promise," Ziva replied, and then crawled out of her bed, and into her sister's. "I was just afraid of losing you. Especially after I was forced to kill Ari. I do not understand why Abba does not wish for us to get to know each other. You are his daughter after all. His flesh and blood. I know that he has always been detached from me, most likely because of losing Talia. I wish I understood it."

"You will," Faith said, and then kissed her sister's head. "I promise you. One way or another we will get the truth out of him, and then you'll know. We both will."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Gibbs, Tony, and Tim ate their breakfast in silence, Gibbs was still trying to piece together the previous twenty-four hours, but what he did remember, he didn't like. He didn't like to apologize, he felt it made him look weak, but in this case, he felt the urge to do exactly that.

Tony and Tim had the exact same thing running through their minds. What the fuck is going on? They both had thought that Gibbs had been acting weird, but neither had thought that their boss had been drugged. They had thought it was weird how fast he jumped to obsessed but knew better than to get in his way when he was like that. It had never ended well in the past.

Tony was waiting patiently for further instructions. One of the reasons he had blindly followed his boss the day before was because he wanted to figure out the mystery surrounding Ziva. Sure he knew it wasn't any of his business, especially with what happened before Ziva returned to Israel, but when had that ever stopped him before.

Tim was running all the information that they had collected through his mind like a computer. Trying to piece it together and possibly find a clue as to what was going on. So far it was proving to be futile.

Their thoughts were interrupted by Gibbs' cell phone loudly ringing from the counter. Gibbs briefly tried to remember how it had gotten there, but ignored the nagging feeling when he saw Abby's name flashing on the screen.

"Are you alright Abby?" He asked instead of a hello.

"Agent Gibbs," Willow replied. "This is Willow Rosenberg-Lehane. I hope you are having a good morning."

Gibbs pulled the phone away from his ear to check the caller id again. Yep, that was Abby's name displayed there. "I've had better," Gibbs said, and then asked. "How is your wife doing?" It wasn't much, but he hoped he caught the subtle peace offering.

"She been better, but she's also been worse," Willow answered, indeed catching the offered olive branch. This would be easier than she thought. "Why don't you come see her for yourself?"

"Where?" Gibbs asked.

"At the Academy in Mayville," Willow replied.

"I'll be there," Gibbs said.

"Before you go, I have something I need to discuss with you. Abby thinks you were drugged," Willow said but didn't give Gibbs a chance to ask questions. "She wants you to call Ducky, and have him draw blood."

"Fine," Gibbs said, not bothering to inform her that he had already come to the same conclusion as well. "I'll call him as soon as we hang up."

"Good. Bring the blood with you, and the rest of your team, as well. Abby will analyze it when you get here," Willow said.

"How are Abby and Ziva?" Gibbs asked, letting his fatherly concern slip into his voice.

"Ziva's good considering. As for Abby, you'll have to talk to her yourself when you get here. I've only spent a few minutes with her," Willow answered. "I've got to go Agent Gibbs. I will see you later today. Good-bye."

Gibbs didn't have a chance to respond because the line went dead and he didn't bother to acknowledge the questioning looks he was receiving. Instead, he dialed Ducky's number and waited for him to answer.

"Good morning Jethro," Ducky answered his phone.

"Morning Ducky," Gibbs said back. "I need a favor."

"Ah, and what would that be?" Ducky asked.

"Can you come to my place and draw some blood? I'll explain why when you get here."

"Certainly Jethro. I'll be there shortly," Ducky said, and for the second time in two minutes the line went dead.

Tony's patience wore off as soon as Gibbs reclaimed his seat at the table, and began eating again. "So what's the what, Boss?" he asked.

"Willow Rosenberg-Lehane has invited us to her home," Gibbs answered.

Tony and McGee were puzzled why they weren't gearing up to go. "Uh Boss," McGee said hesitantly. "Are we going to go?"

"Yep," Gibbs said, and then took a bite of his pizza.

"When and why do you need Ducky to come here?" Tony asked.

"To draw blood and we'll leave as soon as he's done. Are there any more questions that need to be answered at this very moment or, can it wait until I know more," Gibbs asked.

"They can wait," McGee answered.

"Good. Eat," Gibbs said.

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After Willow got off the phone with Gibbs, she hunted Liz down to speak with her about Faith. She was already preparing for Faith's surgery in the operating room. They spoke briefly, and then Willow left again.

She stopped by the kitchen to check on the food and found Abby and Dawn laughing at something stupid Andrew had just done. She handed the phone to Abby and told her that Gibbs would be there later. Andrew was done with the food, so she escorted him up to the library.

While Willow was on her way to the library to fill them in on the latest development, Abby and Dawn returned to the infirmary. The first thing they noticed as they walked through the doors, were the soundly sleeping sisters.

"Awe, they look so adorable," Abby gushed quietly.

"Yeah they do," Dawn agreed. She placed the Jell-O on Ziva's tray and then motioned for Abby to follow her into an empty office. "We don't get to see Faith look that peaceful very often. She is only like that when she is with Ziva or Willow."

"I can't believe Ziva has a sister and never told me," Abby said, as she sat down in one of the rolling chairs.

"Like she said earlier. She did it to protect Faith," Dawn said. "She had good intentions, but she broke the rules by not informing us about the potential danger. A slayer's first instinct is to protect, even if it puts herself at risk. That why we created these rules, to ensure that that doesn't happen."

"I can understand the need for secrecy, but I would never have said anything," Abby said.

"You think that you wouldn't, but people have a way of getting it out of you. Our lives are dangerous. She knew that telling you about Faith or about us would put your life in danger. It puts you right in the crossfire. If you had known before now, then whoever is behind all of this could have used you against Ziva."

"That's not much different than how my life already is, so I get why she didn't tell me," Abby said, sadly. "I just wished she had told me. Keeping a sister, and the fact that she a mystical being created to protect the world from the things that go bump in the night is a lot to keep locked away for so long."

"Your right. It is a lot to keep in," Dawn said, and then stood up. "Come on. I'll give a tour of the building, and I'll tell you everything there is to know about slayers, demons, and witches."

"Oh my," Abby said, and then started giggling, which in return made Dawn start giggling as well.

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Willow and Andrew pushed the two carts into the library, well one of the libraries. They had three total. One for the younger students, one for the older students, and one for the Council members. All three libraries were connected by doors, by were magically protected. No student could enter the Council library, and no student under the age of fourteen could enter the older student's library. Each library contained books pertinent to their age group and studies.

Willow helped Andrew put the food on the table and then directed him to the big board. Yep Andrew finally got his damn big board. It took up an entire thirty-foot wall. Andrew got the markers out of the cabinet.

"Ready Andrew?" Buffy asked.

"Yep," Andrew answered.

"Good," Buffy said. "So what do we know so far?"

"We know that Ziva was sent on a mission by her father, and was captured by a terrorist cell. She was held there for three months," Willow said and watched Andrew dutifully put the information on the board. She would be the first person to admit that Andrew's Big Board was probably the best idea the man had. It made big cases like this so much easier.

"Ziva was administered the de-slayer serum on a daily basis while she was held captive," Buffy said.

"Eli David is one of the only people alive to know how to make that drug," Xander contributed.

"Eli was the one to tell me where Ziva was," Willow said.

"Ziva worked for a government organization known as NCIS," Xander said.

"Faith was dosed with the de-slayer serum," Willow said.

"I think that's it for what we know at the moment," Xander said.

"So speculations then?" Buffy asked the group.

Andrew moved over a couple of feet and wrote 'Speculations' on the board.

"We believe that Eli is behind this whole thing. Whatever it is," Willow said.

"We're looking into the possibility of a mole amongst us," Xander said.

"As well as the doctor on the plane," Buffy said.

"Abby believes that Gibbs was drugged," Willow stated. "She thinks that is the reason behind his crazy behavior yesterday."

Andrew turned around abruptly, and asked, "Hey Xander. Didn't we read about a drug in the old Council files that amplifies obsessions?"

Xander thought for a moment. The two of them had been going through some recently unearthed Council files a few days ago and had come across a book with drug recipes in it. "Yeah, your right. It was in that book we found."

"What does that mean?" Sam asked.

"That means that we have another clue to follow," Willow stated. "Gibbs is on his way here with a vile of his blood. We can have Liz and Abby analyze it when he gets here."

"We need Ziva to fill in the blanks. We need to know everything she remembers from the time she returned to Israel until she was rescued," Sam said.

"I've already talked to her about it. I don't want to pressure her before she's ready," Willow said. "We'll need Agent Gibbs' to recount where he's been for the last two days as well. Where are we for reinforcements?"

"Finn's mobilizing the team," Sam said. "They should be here by tonight."

"Have the research team found anything else out about Eli yet?" Willow asked.

"No. They are currently working on phone records, and visitors," Xander said.

"So what's our game plan?" Sam asked.

"We don't have one yet," Buffy said. "For now, we have to wait and research as much as possible. Our game plan will unfold as we know more."

"Okay. Faith is going into surgery in a few minute, and I'd like to see her before she does," Willow said. "I'll see if Ziva will talk to me while we wait."

"Okay," Buffy said, as her best friend got up to leave.

"I hope Faith is going to be alright," Xander said.

"Yeah me too," Buffy said, and then grabbed a jelly donut off of the platter in front of her.

"Xander, I'm going to get that book," Andrew said.

"Mmm, good idea Andy," Xander said with his mouth full. "Take it to Willow, and she'll give it to Liz and Abby.

Andrew nodded and then left the library, leaving Xander, Buffy, and Sam alone to eat and discuss that case amongst them.


	9. Into the Abyss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! So for those of you who are reading this story for the first time, please ignore this AN. For those of you who read this story on FF.net, please pay attention. As of 7/12/16 chapters 1-8 have been edited thanks to my beta Sorentia. Not much has changed but it does read better. This is the first new chapter since 2012. I hope ya'll enjoy.

The hotel room was dark, with just a small bedside lamp illuminating the room. The smell of blood and black cherry cigars hung heavy in the air. Two shadowy figures sat across from each other in the center of the large room, with two mugs sitting on the coffee table in between them. One filled with warm blood, while the other was filled with coffee that had long since been warm. Each man had a lit cigar in their hand, occasionally puffing on the end.

Eli wasn't thrilled to have a vampire in his company, however, Brutus seemed decent enough, for a vampire anyways. He was quiet and polite, and always seemed to have an answer to a potential problem that occurred in Eli's plans. In reality, Brutus was just a glorified babysitter. There only to make sure he did his job, Brutus still proved to be a great asset to him. Eli was even getting used to the smell of blood that always seemed to linger in the air.

The sun was attempting to shine brightly through the closed blinds, signaling that it was mid-afternoon. It had been several hours since their current session of planning began, and their progress had been painfully slow. It was one of those times that Brutus was just a little too good at his job. For every possible problem Eli encountered, Brutus gave him three solutions. Eli would then have to decide which one to use.

Eli knew he had to check in with his teams, both evil and good. He needed to check in with his Mossad office in both Washington and Israel so that they wouldn't send out an alert that he was missing, and he needed to check in with his 'evil' minions because they were the ones tailing Ziva and her sister.

Phase two of his plan was to be put into place in nearly twelve hours, in the wee hours of the night. However there still was one kink in his plan that had yet to be worked out, and it just so happened to be the most important part of the plan. How to get past the Council's defenses. He knew that his bastard daughter's wife would have nearly impenetrable spells put into place, but only nearly. There was a way to get past them. He just needed to figure it out.

Despite having the Council's headquarter watched around the clock for six months, he had yet to figure it out. The plan had originally been scheduled to occur during Ziva's faux mission. Due to the Council's unexpected return to the States four months ago, he had been forced to re-group. He knew it was stupid of him to wait until the very last minute, but the solution just never presented itself.

As of now, he was just hoping that defenses would be down when the slayers went off to protect the citizens of Mayville. Plus he was sure that the drugs in Gibbs' system have worn off, which meant that he was on his way to the school, creating another distraction for his daughters' friends.

The fate of the world was riding on this mission completion, and he couldn't screw it up. He just hoped that Ziva would be able to forgive him once this whole thing was over.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Ziva worriedly watched Willow as the redhead stayed vigilant by her wife's prone form. It had been several hours since Faith had returned from surgery, and so far there had been no signs of her waking from the anesthetic-induced coma.

Each of the Scooby gang had already stopped by to see the sleeping beauty, bringing with them no good news on who the next big bad was. Xander had attempted to cheer them up by saying that Faith caught coma's like a cold and that she would bounce back, which had failed miserably. Sure, in the past every time Faith had slipped into a coma she had recovered, but that didn't ease Willow's worry.

Ziva had been slipping in and out of conscious during the day. She was barely able to keep her eyes open for more than an hour of time. She felt drained, much more than she had ever felt. She hated it. She hated feeling weak. She hated being bedridden, and she hated knowing that if somebody attacked, she would be useless.

She looked at her sister, with an ache in her heart. Faith would never know the good in their father. Ziva wasn't even sure if there was any good left in the man. She didn't want to believe that he not only left her to be tortured in Somalia but that he set the whole thing up. In a way, she envied Faith for not knowing their father. It saved her the emotional turmoil she was going through.

She sighed to herself and closed her eyes again. She knew there was no need in fighting sleep. Liz explained that until she was no longer dehydrated and malnourished she may sleep for a while. Ziva also expected that Liz was dosing her with Willow's sleeping potion, to help along her healing process. If she had suspected anyone else of doing this to her, especially after being drugged for the last three months, she would have ripped the IV out and bolted. She trusted Faith and Willow with her life, and they trusted Liz with theirs. That was good enough for her.

In truth, she was happy for the sleep. After three months of sleeping only a few minutes at a time, the extra sleep was nice. Besides, the dreamless sleep allowed her to escape the horrors of her time in Somalia. It was a welcomed relief.

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The sun was just beginning to set when Gibbs pulled up to the gates at 313 Slayer Ave in Mayville, New York. Ducky was riding shotgun, and Tony and Tim were in the back. Gibbs rolled down his window and pushed the intercom button. A few seconds later, a woman's voice floated through the speakers.

"Agent Gibbs, we've been expecting you," Buffy said. "Park in front of the doors. We will meet you there."

The gates swung open, allowing them to drive up the long driveway. As they approached the main building, all four men were in awe. The building stood seven stories high, with a gothic look to it. There was a tower, weathered stone walls, tall gothic windows, and intimidating ancient double doors. When they thought of a school, the building before them was not what came to mind. Instead it reminded them of a small castle.

Willow and Buffy were waiting on the top step in front on the double doors with three teenagers. Gibbs parked, and eagerly stepped out of the car. A six-hour car ride was taxing, and the whole crew was eager to stretch their legs while Tony and Ducky went to the get their luggage. Ducky pulled out the cooler that held the vials of Gibbs blood, leaving Tony to get the bags.

Two of the teenagers standing behind Buffy and Willow stepped forward and picked up the bags Tony had set on the curb, while the third moved forward towards Gibbs. "I will park your car in the garage for you," she said.

Gibbs tightened his grip on his car keys and looked to Buffy and Willow. The redhead nodded her head at him, and he reluctantly released the keys, "Don't crash it," he grumbled.

"Don't worry sir, I'm not Ms. Buffy," the teen said with a coy smirk.

Willow snorted as Buffy shout an undignified, "Hey."

Gibbs looked at the pair and cracked a soft smile at the pair. Walking up the dozen stone steps he stood in front of Willow and Buffy.

"Agent Gibbs," Buffy said formally, "I hope you're feeling better than you were yesterday."

"Much," Gibbs replied.

"Good," she said, and then turned to her girls. "Stella, take the cooler to Dr. Liz, and then report to the kitchens. Mr. Andree requested your help for dinner tonight. Heart, take the bags to Agent Gibbs room, and then you are free for the night. Thank you both for your help."

Once the girls disappeared into the building, Buffy turned to the four men with a serious look on her face. "Before we enter the school, I want to be clear that if you think of acting like you did yesterday, your stay will be over. Willow will magic your asses back to DC."

Gibbs raised his hands in the air, and then said, "Your house, your rules."

"Good," Buffy said, and then turned around and walked into the building. Gibbs, Ducky, Tim, and Tony followed with Willow bringing up the rear. Buffy was standing at the front desk when they entered, but it was the room itself that caught their attention.

The room didn't look anything like the gothic architecture outside led them to expect. In fact, it looked exactly like you would expect a school or business to look. The walls were a beige color, there was a high modern glass chandelier, and the floors that were a shiny blue and green marble. It was a modest entrance.

Buffy turned to face them, with a small stack of papers in her hands. "So before we give you the grand tour, you need to sign these." She handed one to each of the agents and then turned to look at Ducky, "Giles called. He said there is no need for you to sign," she told the aging Medical Examiner.

McGee asked, "What are we signing, exactly?"

Willow came from behind them and stood next to Buffy. "Confidentiality agreements. It basically says that if you tell anybody who doesn't have clearance, then you will be imprisoned in our basement."

All three of the agents looked up at her sharply. "She's joking about the last part," Buffy chuckled.

"She's right. I am. If you break the agreement, then your memory of this place and us will be scrubbed from your minds. I really don't like doing that, so please don't tell anybody who doesn't have the clearance."

"You can do that?" McGee asked, sounding somewhat frightened.

"I can. It's not pretty, though," Willow said. "Thankfully I haven't had to scrub anyone's mind in years. That was before the contracts, though. We had a little incident in Scotland and I had no choice."

The three agents looked at each other and then placed their contracts on the counter to sign. They came too far not to get answers, and contracts were something that they were familiar with. They did work at NCIS after all. Besides, none of them had any intentions of telling anybody about this. Who would believe in magic? If they hadn't of seen it with their own eyes, they still would be blissfully ignorant.

"Great," Buffy said, as she collected the contracts, and then handed them to Amber, the Slayer in charge of the desk. "Let's go see Ziva and Faith first, and then we'll give you a tour."

"Sounds good," Gibbs said.

They followed Willow and Buffy down a hallway to the left. They had been walking for ten minutes when they finally entered a sterile hallway. They entered a double set of doors about half way down. Both Ziva and Faith were lying in their hospital beds, wide awake, and chatting with Abby and Dawn. When Faith saw who entered the room, the soft tired smile she had been wearing dropped into a weary frown.

"Ziva, you've got visitors," she told her sister.

Dawn and Abby turned from their spots on Faith and Ziva's beds, retrospectively. Abby gave Gibbs a ferocious look and then turned back to Ziva. She wasn't about ready to forgive the man until she had proof that it was the drugs making him act the way he had.

There were awkward exchanges around the room, followed by a bit of shuffling around to get everybody seated. Buffy and Willow had spoken to Ziva earlier in the day about what the NCIS crew was to know, and what they were going to exclude. Ziva had decided that it was time for her co-workers and friends to know the truth about everything.

"You're up Dawnie," Buffy said from her spot leaning against the wall.

"So you already know about witches," Dawn began, "but there is so much more magic than you think. All the stories you read as a kid about demons and vampires are real, and much, much more that you never heard of. Many of the stories are true, but the facts are distorted. Then there are the stories that are right on point. Like Dracula, for example."

Tony snorted. "You're trying to tell me that a fictional character is real. I've seen every Dracula movie made. There is no way."

Buffy laughed. "Oh, he's real alright. Got the scar on my neck to prove it," she said pointing to the duel Angel/Dracula scar. "He's a bit creepy, but one of the better vampires we've met. Xander goes to see him for a few weeks a year."

Tony was looking at Buffy as though she lost her mind. Buffy laughed again, and then said, "We did mention that this was going to be hard for you to accept. We have proof for everything that we are going to tell you." Buffy nodded her head to Dawn indicating she could continue.

"So as I was saying, if you heard about a supernatural being growing up, then it probably really does exist. Witches, warlocks, demons, vampires, cyborg/demon hybrids, gods, they are all real. There are good witches in the world who help fight them, but the job lands primarily on one special type of magical being. Slayers"

"Giles loved to do the next part, every chance he got," Buffy interrupted.

Dawn smiled at her sister. "And now he loves to tell people how you changed it." She looked back to the agents. "In every generation, there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness to stop the spread of their evil and swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer." Dawn looked to her sister and then sat back on Faith's bed.

"My turn," Buffy said, and moved to stand where Dawn had been. "There used to be just one slayer in the entire world. When she died, the Slayer Essence would move onto the next girl with the potential. The Slayer Essence is similar a dominate gene, and being a potential was like having the recessive slayer gene. When the active slayer died, the Slayer Essence acted like a key for the recessive gene, making it dominant in the next potential."

"You're getting better at explaining that," Willow commented with a smile.

"Thanks. It helps that we know how the slayer gene works now," Buffy said, and then turned back to the men. "In May of 2003, Willow cast a spell to unlock the recessive slayer gene, turning all potentials into slayers. So instead of there being just one girl fighting evil, there are thousands. Before then it was just me and Faith."

"But you just said there was only one," McGee said.

"I died at the end of my sophomore year for like a minute," Buffy said.

"Then Kendra was called, but was killed a year later," Willow said, adding to the story.

"That's when I was called," Faith finished for the group.

Gibbs shook his head slightly and said, "So let me get this straight, you two are supernatural beings, who fight demons and vampires."

"Yup," Buffy and Faith said in unison.

"I don't believe you," he said. "There is no way."

Buffy groaned and then went over to the man's chair. She bent down and lifted him and the chair up with ease. She sat him back down and asked, "How else would you explain what I just did?"

The three agents were looking at Buffy in shock and fear. The fear in their eyes didn't bother her anymore. After years of telling parents about their daughters, she had grown used to that look. Now she could even appreciate the fear that she instilled in people. She didn't enjoy it, but it did make her remember the damage they could do if any slayer got out of control. Faith had admitted the same thing to her on a few occasions. She said that it reminded her of the dark place she never wanted to go again. It was one of the few times that Faith showed her vulnerability around Buffy.

Tony started rambling on about a movie he once saw, which turned into another, and another until finally Gibbs had enough of his nervous rambling and slapped him on his head.

"Thank you, boss," Tony said.

"Our story is long, and would take too much time to tell you everything. So we'll give you the cliff notes. Slayers slay, watchers watch and research, the watcher's council oversees the watchers and slayers. The original Watchers Council was destroyed a few months before we accidently destroyed Sunnydale, during the fight with The First. We moved to Scotland, reformed the Watcher's Council. Two years ago the watchers council officially became a secret branch of the Military. This is a school, however, it is also an excuse to have thousands of underage girls together in one place."

"Military?" Gibbs asked.

"That's not possible," Tim said. "I did the background checks myself."

"And anything that you found is true, except that it is incomplete," Willow said. "The only information you will be able to find on anyone employed by the Watchers Council, or attending this school, is information I let you see. Anything else is scrubbed from existence by me."

"Okay. That explains why McGee wasn't able to find much on you, but that doesn't explain why your names weren't flagged in our system," Gibbs said.

"Secret branch of the military," Buffy stated. "You don't have access to our files. The only time our military status is flagged in your system is if one of us are arrested, and you won't see the flag. The flag goes to our people. You've already seen what happens if our people are being held."

"So your people have a get out of jail free card," Tony said. "That's pretty cool."

"Not if they are guilty," Gibbs reminded him.

"If one of the girls actually does something wrong, then we will know, and she will be punished. In most cases the girls are arrested during the line of duty. We've had girls arrested for breaking curfew, carrying weapons, or accidentally hurting a human. Rogue slayers are uncommon but happen. If we do have a rogue, we know how to take care of her."

"Take care of her? If she's deranged then she belongs in jail," Gibbs said.

"No prison in this country can hold a slayer," Faith said from her bed. "If a slayer has gone off the deep end, only a trained slayer will know how to deal with her."

"You talk as though you have experience," Tony said.

"That's because we do," Buffy butted in. She could see that Faith was about ready to tell them about her experience as a rouge. Willow had expressed her concern about how the NCIS Agents would see Faith in a bad light if they learned about her past, before having a chance to get to know her. "There are twenty two thousand super powered woman. We have to detain a few girls each year. Most are fairly harmless, but there are a few who loose themselves to the power completely. They are the girls who can only be stopped and helped by a slayer."

"It looks like you have all the answers," Gibbs said. He stood up, and walked around the room. "It all sounds like you need a shrink."

Faith snorted. "As a shrink, I would normally agree with ya, but everything we're telling you is true."

All three agents looked at the woman in surprise.

"You're a psychologist?" McGee asked surprised. "I didn't find any record of you graduating from University."

It was Dawn's turn to snort at the men. "Clearly you're having trouble with the concept of a secret branch of the military. The only things that you are going to find are the things that we want to be found."

Ducky, (who had been sitting quietly observing the group) furrowed his eyebrows. "Why would you hide an achievement like that?"

"I did nine years of schooling in five, and graduated with high honors. There is no hiding that," Faith said.

Willow smiled at her wife proudly. After Faith returned after her disappearing act for six months, Faith proclaimed that she wanted to do better by the girls. Apparently she had met a rouge slayer on her travels and attempted to help her, but the girl was beyond Faith's scope of expertise. Yes she had been there and knew some of what she was feeling, but every person is different. The girl lost her mind and jumped off a cliff after going on a killing spree.

Faith lost it for a while after that. She kept to herself so that she wouldn't hurt anybody, but she was barely surviving. She was taken in by a small tribe in the Amazon, after nearly being killed by a demon. The nursed her back to health, and helped her heal mentally. When she returned home she told everybody that she wanted to go to school to be a shrink so that she can help the girls from falling prey to their own minds.

She worked hard every day. She finished undergraduate school in less than two years, graduate school in a little over two, and she managed to work her masters in just a year. She finished school just before they relocated to Mayville. Willow had to do a little witch-y foo in order to stop a few professors from asking too many unwanted questions, but it worked.

"The knowledge is there, is just buried really deep. The only reason she was able cram nine years into five was because she's a slayer who only needs to sleep a few hours a night. We don't want anybody questioning how she did it."

"Covering all your bases," Tony said. "I feel like I stepped into a really bad Sci-fi film."

All of the slayers and witches smiled at the man, but it was a voice from behind them that answered. Xander walked into the room, with a file in his hand. "I thought the same thing when I first found out who Buffy was." Xander walked over and handed the file to Buffy. He then turned back towards the agents. "I actually feel like that evert day of my bizarre life."

"Cool eyepatch, One Eyed Willie," Tony said.

"Hey! I prefer Rooster Cogburn, thank you very much Jack Ryan," Xander said, feigning hurt.

Tony's eyes widened in excitement. "You understood my reference, and counteracted. Nobody ever understands my movie references."

Buffy looked up from the file she was reading, and handed the file to Willow. Before Xander had a chance to agree with Tony, she interrupted. "Sorry boys. You'll have to save the geek bonding for later. We have an apocalypse to stop…"


End file.
